Columns/Opinions

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES FOR DEC. 1 | In Advent, let’s be more awake to how we welcome Jesus

Voluntarily emptying ourselves can help us welcome Jesus more deeply into our lives

An image of Father Donald Wester
Father Donald Wester

We are reminded on the First Sunday of Advent of the promise that God made to the Jewish people and, in turn, to us as children of God. The Scripture uses words like righteousness, justice, safety and security. Hearing those words and knowing that God’s power is behind them should give our minds and hearts a restful and serene place to be as we experience the changes and anxieties of daily life.

The end of the Church year reminds us of the difficulties that our ancestors lived through. We have also been reminded that the same trials and tribulations from the past will also come our way. We are naïve if we believe that our faith in God keeps us from suffering and pain. Nowhere in the promise of God are we assured of an easy journey to righteousness and justice. But Advent gives us an opportunity to prepare ourselves for what is happening in our lives today as well as what will come in the future.

In our preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, we have the traditional marking of the weeks by lighting the Advent candles. Each week, we are asked to be conscious of the type of season this is and what it will take for us to make the celebration of Christmas more than a civic holiday. December 25 will come and go, no matter our pre-preparation or lack of it. Christmas doesn’t wait for us, and as we are reminded in the Scriptures this weekend, neither does the coming of Christ at the end of time. We can prepare and face it with peace and justice or pretend it will never happen and be filled with anxiety and fear.

We are truly preparing for a religious reawakening in each of us. Not to be overshadowed by gift buying and party going, there should be a place in our minds and hearts for the invitation to come closer, be more awake and respond more deeply to welcoming Jesus again. We all know what it’s like to prepare our homes and hearts for visitors. Those who have recently welcomed a child or are expecting a baby know even more deeply what it means to welcome the coming one like Jesus. The child becomes the center of our lives, and we interrupt sleep and allow our houses to become more chaotic for the sake of welcoming someone new. What keeps us from doing that as we prepare to celebrate once again the birth of Jesus?

Why was Jesus born in such meager surroundings? Why did He and His family need to leave their comfortable home and go to a different village? Why was Jesus’ birth filled with strangers who came to visit instead of being a strictly family affair? Why, amid such a happy occasion, did there have to be someone who was threatening the baby’s life? Why can’t life ever be just smooth and easy?

It seems that our preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus should have some uncomfortability about it. This shouldn’t be a season just filled with extra shopping and extra partying. It really shouldn’t be a season in which we just hang out with the people we are most comfortable with. During Advent, are we available to have our lives interrupted by the unexpected and sometimes the unpleasant? Are we willing to make our celebrations more inclusive rather than exclusive? Are we willing to do with less and live a more meager life not because we have to but because we choose to?

Voluntary self-emptying marked Jesus’ life even before He was born. If we wish to follow in His footsteps and welcome Him more deeply into our lives, let us give birth to a new and deeper life of living as His disciples.

Father Donald Wester is retired and serves as lecturer of homiletics at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

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