‘Advent calls us to live life
with heads up, arms open’
Scripture is very clear: God likes us, takes pleasure in us, in fact. God rejoices in our creation and wants us to be who we are, no more, no less. The problem may be that we have not yet learned to like ourselves. Or as G.K. Chesterton put it, “True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and rare.”
To become contented with what we are and what we have, to be at peace doing what we do and becoming what we are is a gift “arduous and rare.” We have to work at it.
The desire to do more than we can possibly do, to be more than we really are, to get more than we clearly need leaves us in terminal dissatisfaction. We are disappointed with life. We don't appreciate even the people around us. We want more than those who are the lifelines of our own existence, the love of our lives – can possibly give. The effect of this kind of discontent destroys relationships. It also takes the very joy out of living and being and growing.
Contentment and delight in life may seem, at first glance, to be a strange Advent message – not stringent enough, not demanding enough to be “holy.” But it is a warning to be alert in this season – when God comes to us through a gentle, defenseless child – that all of us are ultimately defenseless. All of us need the gentling of the other.
Throughout history sins have been committed in the name of religion by people who use “holiness” to justify their being spiritually disconnected, hard on others, disgruntled with life, soured on mercy, and righteous in their judgments. It is a long cry from a stable, a baby, a homeless mother, and a pleading father who come quietly, bearing a tender God to earth.
“Contentment” Socrates said, “is natural wealth.” It is the lesson of the stable, as well, to a world forever agitated in its pursuit of things, of money, of power, and even of “holiness.”
Advent calls us to live life with heads up and arms open, content to be alive and pulsing with fullness of spirit whatever the circumstances of the day. Second Sunday of Advent:
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
2 Peter 3:8-14
Mark 1:1-8 (From “Sparks of Advent Light” by Joan Chittister, Benetvision 2008).
