UNEXPECTED COMING
“Be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” – Mt. 24:44
Advent came quickly this year. It snuck up as we barely digested our Thanksgiving meals. It arrived as we hardly departed from visiting family and friends.
Today’s Gospel is on point. Jesus urges us to “stay awake” and “be prepared” for God who comes unexpectedly. He likens the unpredictable visits of God to the flood during Noah’s time, the splitting-up of people working side-by-side, and a thief coming to steal in the night. Yet, how can we really prepare for sudden surprises?
I had an encounter a few weeks ago that shed some light on this conundrum. It happened when I came, physically tired, to visit a newborn child of a dear couple. As I held their five-day-old son, both of his older siblings were clinging to my legs. The four-year-old big brother sat completely on my left foot. The two-year-old sister likewise saddled on my right foot. Together they instructed me, their imagined merry-go-around, to lift my legs and give them a carousel ride. As I tried to slide and prance awkwardly with a newborn in my arms and a sibling on either leg, the four of us danced, full of delight. As I engaged in the playfulness of the older siblings, I became very present; my tiredness turned to gentle joy. As I looked at the newborn child, I received tender loving. I remembered thinking, “Oh my, I’m meeting the Holy Trinity.”
The early church fathers and mothers visualized the Trinity as a Greek dance involving three people weaving in and out in a beautiful, harmonious pattern of motion. They called this dance “perichoresis,” a relationship of mutual giving and receiving. For them, the Trinity is the dance of love. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once wrote: “Advent invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us a glimpse of his love!” My playful dance with the three siblings was an unexpected encounter with God’s love.
Advent invites us to prepare for the coming of the God of surprises: to remember Jesus’ first coming at Christmas, to await Christ’s Second Coming in the Parousia, to receive his extraordinary presence in our ordinary day. Perhaps we can let ourselves dance and be drawn into playfulness during this busy season of exams, year-end preparations and celebrations. Perhaps in our openness to surprises, we can welcome God’s coming who consoles us amidst the troubles of the world.
Dear Jesus, cultivate in me a spirit of dance and childlike play as I prepare for your coming.
Photo by James Hose Jr on Unsplash