An Advent Reflection

An Advent Reflection
We prepare for the story of the birth of Jesus,
by waking up to the truth
that we, like him, are called to be fully human.
To get this means to be startled
by the coming of God into our lives.
It turns out that what we are called to prepare for
is the birth of the True Human in us,
in our community,
and in the world.

This is not secular humanism,
for the human, we know intuitively,
is participating in a repair/co-creation
that is part of a divine plan or intention.
We understand that the gospel story is an externalization
of our own story told through the life, death, and resurrection
of one who was Human and that we are to become that!
This carries with it an immense responsibility,
to consciously participate in our own evolution.

We are anticipating,
in other words, our own recreation,
rendering us active agents
in the repair and recreation of the world.
The practice of the Advent season
is to purge ourselves of everything in our lives
that is not love,
that is not freedom,
that is not truth.

Needless to say, this is not an easy path.
It certainly is not a passive path.
You and I are completing or perfecting the love
that was known in Jesus of Nazareth,
and in all courageous souls,
willing to join the lineage of the heart-broken ones.
But over a lifetime
we may discover that
we too will be lifted up,
with Jesus, to the Home of God where Love reigns eternally.
And the Human One will have once again
disrupted the way of greed and fear.
Through us, and the body of Christ,
by God’s grace, the cosmogenesis,
the Birth of the Universe occurs, again and again.