First Sunday in Advent 'C'

Sunday December 3, 2006

Search the stars for the one with your name on it!

“The best show in New York City is not on Broadway. It’s the spectacular three-dimensional film, ‘Passport to the Universe.’” These were the opening words of David S. Toolan, (Jesuit, but nice!) writing several years ago in the Jesuit weekly, AMERICA. David went on at some length in his ‘op-ed’ article entitled, “Of Many Things” elaborating on the excitement of soaring through the universe, “swimming around in the midst of hundreds — no, billions — of galaxies.” Our Milky Way galaxy is only a dot in a vast sea of black and exploding supernovas.

His initial response to this twenty-minute adventure, which I think is still traveling around the country and perhaps around the globe, was this: David, “you must change your life.” And then he added, “I’ve go to redo all my theology.” In fact, he did just that in several of his excellent books the most notable of which is, At Home in the Cosmos. [Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 2001]

Around the same time, a scientist observed that “if the events that span the 15 billion year timeline of the universe were laid along the length of a football field, then all of human history would span the thickness of a blade of grass in the end zone and the drama is still [active in] the uncertain fate of the universe!”

In the words of the great philosopher and sage, “Wow!”

“So what’s the point?” you might well ask this preacher.

On this weekend we begin a new liturgical cycle and a new year of grace and opportunity. The ancient texts speak of an unfolding drama assumed to be completed with the coming of the Messiah. But in apocalyptic language, St Luke wrote his gospel fifty years or more after the death of the Messiah, about another coming. St. Luke may have been a physician but he was not a scientist. Consequently, his words are not to be interpreted in a literal sense—thank God! He was a man of faith, an evangelist writing for people of faith in Greece. The first coming was only the beginning. Luke’s Messiah laid the groundwork for what was yet to come. To understand Luke’s narrative, we need to go to the conclusion of his gospel in Jerusalem — on Calvary, at the tomb and in the upper room.

Several years ago, I was invited to conduct an Advent retreat for what I thought was to be a group of young school parents. As the date neared, I went through the usual internal dialogue with myself, and the ‘how do I get myself into these situations?’ routine. Advent calendars always look empty in July. Although I was prepared and thought I knew what I was going to say, only minutes before the retreat was to begin, I realized the group was not what I expected it to be. It was composed of men and women ranging in age from 18 to 85! — a challenge for any preacher. I panicked! My ‘script’ was not going to work for this group. Not only were they of every age and description, they were not even a group. They sat in different sections of the church, isolated one from the other. I’m sure it was my panic that produced a false impression of who were in front of me. I had never met any of them before. I didn’t know their stories. I whispered what I called then and still do to this day, a panic prayer of petition: “Lord, let’s make a deal! Help me out this time and I’ll help you out next time!” So, I dove in and simply talked about God — not the God I learned about in theology class or in books, but the God I had come to know in the course of time from my earliest years at our family table and then over time through my association with Jesus at our Church table and at the table of humanity through Christian service.

I suppose it became more of a “witness talk” than a prepared speech. I didn’t pick the words; they were selected for me. I watched the faces and we began to connect with each other. They seemed to recognize the God about whom I was speaking. We quickly became a group but not groupie.

In fact, the real retreat did not begin until the participants began to share their stories about how they had experienced God in their own lives. They had done their “soul-work” long before I got there and long before they arrived at the church. They didn’t just know about God, they knew God in a personal way as do you. All had a story to tell about a journey far into the universe of their hearts. It was a God whom they had experienced through a different cosmology. No matter what the shape of their world, they had caught the rhythm of God through their own human experiences — in pain and sorrow; in joy and laughter.

They had moved far beyond scientific truth to Biblical truth, i.e., they had embraced a new cosmology of the heart that allowed them over the course of time to experience God in many and different ways, not all of them religious — much as did Jesus in his own day. In fact, they truly understood how often the end is just the beginning.

Jesus’ life in history is still just the beginning.

Jesus is the ‘reason for the season’ but the season is also the reason for coming to know and experience God in the mess of life. In fact, it’s about blessing the mess and making it holy. It’s not about condemning the secular but about consecrating the human. It not about gift giving but about giving ourselves through gifts that can only hint at the real gift of self. It’s the realization that indeed, we are only blades of grass in the end zone in the history of the universe and that every blade of grass is unique and connected in someway to the entire field and in the etire game.

Jesus’ journey was briefer than most and in his humanity he knew little about the Milky Way or the number of light years it takes for the light of stars to reach the earth. But he knew the human heart and the distance that can separate sisters and brothers on this planet. He understood God’s all-embracing love; in fact he was God’s all-embracing love in human form.

Yes, Jesus is the reason for the season but Advent is also the season for “soul-work.” We need to look for God in the clutter and mess of life. Make room in your heart for other seekers and searchers. Dance with God in prayer. Dance with God in song. Dance with God in charity and catch the rhythm of God’s life in everything you do and you will come to know the Jesus who is ever the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Whether or not you are able to be with us Sunday and Monday evenings, take some ‘pocket time’ every day—three minutes of silence every evening and every morning.

On a clear night, search the sky for the star with your name on it. At dawn look to the eastern sky as it moves from dark blue to violet to mauve to the light of a new day. And when the day is cloudy, look into the clouds with eyes of faith and know that the rays of God’s love never lose their radiance and know that the end is just the beginning.

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