As we prepare for Advent, we tune our hearts to harmonize with God’s grace by
consciously showing one another the same kind of love God has shown us. The scriptures
traditionally associated with Advent speak to human loneliness, but also to the loving answer
God sends into the midst of our estrangement. John cries out alone in the wilderness, but many
come to hear him, and repent
Mary, bewilderingly, finds herself expecting a child, marked as unfaithful, despoiled,
discarded by those around her; yet Elizabeth welcomes Mary with joy, and together they
envision the new future God might work through her child. Joseph feels the anguish of betrayal
and heartbreak; but in a dream God shows him a different way of responding, and he bravely
defies his community’s judgment, offering his love and trust to Mary. There is no room in the
inn, yet God provides shelter—first among beasts, then accompanied by the poor and outcast,
and finally, visited by those with privilege yet wise enough to know what they are missing and
search for it.
The characters in these stories want nothing more than to lead a quiet life—to mind their
own business, to work with their hands, to be worthy of the respect of others, and not to depend
on anybody. Yet God leads them along a different path---one that disrupts their quiet, strips away
the respect of others, makes them depend abjectly on strangers. And God, above all these
worldly troubles, yet within them and through them, shows each one the durability of love.
May we prepare our hearts for Advent by re-attuning them to experience and show God’s
love—to work to aid those in need, to show respect to those whom others disrespect, to depend
only on God and to evidence to others God’s great dependability.
John Michael Parrish