Sister Elise Saggau
Advent proclaims to us that one of God’s names is “Savior.” Expectation of salvation is an issue of hope. Hope may be the most crucial virtue for us in our times. When we look at the world around us, we have to wonder: Is there any way that things are getting better? Does it make any difference at all to be Christian people in this time? Do the Gospels matter at all? How does our faith in Jesus Christ help us to live in the world in a way that matters, that helps, that brings the human enterprise forward? Do I personally matter at all? Is anything worth waiting for? How can we hope when everything looks so hopeless?
These are powerful and terrible questions. By ourselves, we are not able to answer them. But, we must understand that we are not in this enterprise alone. There is a power greater than ourselves at work for our ultimate good and this loving power cares about us. Questions that involve hope and faith are hard questions—ones that we often would rather not deal with. To face them, we need a community of people who share a common faith and who tell a common story rooted in the experiences that faith brings.
The Christian Church is such a community. Together we believe that God has come into our midst in the person of Jesus Christ to share our lot with us and to be with us on this difficult and sometimes bewildering journey. It is a community that proclaims that God has raised Jesus from the dead and thereby has destroyed forever the power of death in the world. It is a community that proclaims that this same Jesus Christ, our human brother, is also our divine Lord with power to save us from our own destructive inclinations. The Christ is a companion whose path leads invariable to an empty tomb—to an unimaginable life beyond death.
During Advent, our hope sustains us as we reflect together on the darkness that seems to have so much power in our world. As we watch and listen to daily reports, bad news and bad images pile up. We must face issues of ecological disaster caused by human misuse of the gifts of the earth. Environmental damage is rapidly reaching the point of no return. It seems that our planet is headed for disaster. Yet, it is not too late to save the earth if countries work together and societies change their behavior. (See David Attenborough, 60 minutes, Sept. 27, 2020.)
We also face destructive situations triggered by racial and ethnic mistrust and fear. These have become flash points for violence. Today we are becoming newly aware that such issues do not go away by themselves, but fester and poison the entire system. We need to be converted to new ways of understanding ourselves and our neighbors. We need to be Gospel today.
Furthermore, economic dis-function besets the wealthiest nation on earth. How is it possible that children go hungry in our country, that people have no homes to live in, that they have no proper access to health care? What kind of conversion is required for us to live the Advent of God in a way that makes a difference in our society today?
Now, on top of all these issues, we must also reckon with an uncontrolled pandemic. This invisible force does not respect any of the controls we have developed for our own protection. Not one of us has ever experienced anything like this, and human resources are proving inadequate to the challenges it poses. We live in a time when darkness seems to have a great advantage in our world, and many of us are haunted by personal and communitarian fears. It is a time when the Gospel message, the good news, sounds like real foolishness. Love your neighbor as yourself? Love your enemy; do good to those who hate you? What nonsense!
So Advent is our time, right now! We hear the voices of the prophets again for the first time! We need to do something NOW! We need to change our ways NOW; it is not too late.
