This Advent let me invite you to share in a
special communal Advent Penance Service. Try this image on for size. I think we
are being asked to undergo some revision, some stretching in our approach to
the spiritual life and in our approach to tragedy of sin. As each person comes
to share what they need from God to be a better spiritual person-- I will lay
my hands on their heads and pray: “In the name of a gentle, loving God, your
sins are forgiven you." This can be a turning point in your life. This
gentle sacrament of hope can help deepened our faith in God and one another. This
is a moment to turn things around, leaving the darkness of sin and facing the
light. This is what repentance is like. But you need to find the time and get
off your couch to experience this grace-filled moment. I can’t come to your
parish.
Jesus
comes not just into our beautifully decorated homes with manager scenes, our
dreams of lots of toys, our happiness and cheer, but also and importantly, into
the craggy mountains and deep gorges of our lives.
You
know a lot about these if you are a human being. What sadness are you hiding
from? What mountain is currently too high to approach? What utter failure hides
in the recesses of your heart? Only one possible solution exists for these
troubles, whether they are giant or small: to let God’s depths be an intimate
part of your own soul.
Christ
is gestating right now in our hearts, just as you and I did in our mother’s
womb. Like a mother, we have to stretch! His birth will not make the world
pleasant and polite, but will connect it at its very roots with the mysterious
profundity of God.
Will
you let him be born in you this year, a little more than in the past? Are you
willing to let your insides pull wider than ever before and so make room? This
is the meaning of Advent. Streeetch!
You do
not have to be capable of such a feat all by yourself. As Paul says in the “let
the one who began the good work in you will continue to complete it until the
day of Christ Jesus.”
Lord I pray for all my Sonshine Friends
that we rely on the tender care of God and of his carefully tending mother.
Allow them to help you dis-close yourself, to tease open a few doors that have
been shut for too long. Fear has ruled you but Advent care can help you.
