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What does God's love looks like in a world gone wrong?
During Advent we prepare for the Incarnation, when
Jesus reveals a God who is nothing but love. But this
enfleshment takes place in the midst of a fallen, sinful world.
Therefore, it will naturally appear threatening, strange, or off-putting.
Consider when you are in a particularly grouchy mood,
when things are not going well. Who is the most obnoxious
person to have around? Someone who is in a good mood.
There is no one more annoying to a grouch than the sunny optimist.
If you have been stuck for two weeks in the depths of a cave,
what would be most tortuous to you? Light.
If you have been swinging a golf club incorrectly for many years,
who is most painful to you? The teacher who compels you
to change everything you've known and to swing in a new way.
The world, on the biblical reading, is a dysfunctional family.
As G.K. Chesterton put it, "We're all in the same boat, and
we're all seasick." Therefore in light of this disorder, when
Jesus comes, he necessarily comes as a trouble-maker,
as a breaker of the peace.
It's helpful to remember during Advent that there is no
contradiction between God's gentleness and God's fierceness:
they are both expressions of his love. They both emerge
when love breaks into our dysfunctional world and
sets it right, which is precisely what commences at Christmas.
Father Barron
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What contradictions in my own life do I need to lay before the crib?
Peace and all good,
Brother Ed, OFM  |
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