NEW YEAR, NEW EWE: LOST SHEEP, WAITING, WALKING
“Blessed are all who wait for the Lord”
As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, 2020 is officially over! Welcome to the "Year of Grace, 2021." The new liturgical year is upon us! 2020 is over, but what started in 2020, sadly, isn’t. In today’s readings, we hear the prophetic vision of a world of peace and plenty, and we are not alone. The first reading and the Gospel have me suspended between the falling towers and bound-up wounds, between lost sheep and healing. At the same time, I am encouraged by the Psalm that those who wait are blessed, not only blessed when the waiting is over. The blessing is in the waiting too. It’s also good to remember that, in fact, we do have shepherds – our clergy, but also friends and mentors. In fact, we have people in our lives bringing healing, sharing teaching. Where will Jesus meet me in my waiting? In this first week of Advent, I have seen Jesus' presence in the compassion of others, and I’ve tried to invite Jesus into my feelings as I see the vulnerability of our neighbor, the complexities that face me when I encounter injustice over the phone or in the news, and the heartbreak I feel at the suffering in our midst and my powerlessness to help in many ways.
Advent is a mixed bag. Since becoming a parent, I relate to it differently. As a parent, I experience a spectrum of feelings similar to what I experience in the readings of these weeks, between comfort and joy, and unease and prophetic urgency. When we were expecting our first-born, there was tremendous joyful expectation, paired with fear of what might go wrong, and so many other things. During COVID, I experience joy at my children’s wonder as the lights and decorations are unpacked again, sadness at their loneliness and separation from other children, the (not always successful) attempt to manage my frustration when they become selectively deaf to Jen and me, and right back to joy and gratitude for how amazing they are. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The Advent liturgies are full of beautiful tenderness, violence and injustice, yearning, hope, fatigue, doubt, loss, light, life and love. I look at that list and think to myself, "so, basically 2020." Advent doesn't prepare us for a Christmas that pretends the world isn't the way it is. Advent hopes to prepare us to run toward a future where we live in that world differently in both our running and waiting. The fulfillment is not complete, but the Teacher is with us, encouraging us: “This is the way; walk in it.”
What do you desire to hear the Teacher say? What does the Teacher say when you do hear? What keeps you from hearing the Teacher’s voice?
Jason Coito
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