Who We are and What We are For
Sister Elise Saggau, OSF
This week Christian churches throughout the world enter into a liturgical season called Advent. So often we think of Advent as though we are time travelers moving toward some future object. However, the word “advent” is related to the Italian word, avvenire, which suggests that something or someone is coming toward us! We are waiting for this promised reality. During Advent, that approaching reality is God—coming to enlighten and redeem us, coming to be with us in ever new and unimaginable ways.
But this coming reality is not only something in our future. It is also something that the community of faith remembers. Over the centuries, the Church has developed a “story-line” from which we continually draw spiritual energy. The story is certainly about the past—it helps us remember all that God has done for us. At the same time, it is a story that “invites us in now.” The past becomes “the present” when we recognize these stories as our own. Through the lens of our own experience, we see that these stories are about what is happening to us now. At the same time, these stories also point us toward the future. They express what is still coming our way.
The Church has always seen the importance of TIME in the human experience and the importance of time-related stories. Therefore, the “liturgical seasons” constitute a year-long drama. Christians immerse themselves in this ongoing drama order to live, in their own times, the mystery of God at work in the world. By engaging with these stories, we are re-minded of who God is and who we are NOW.
The season of Advent is a time set apart particularly to remember the meaning of Christ’s coming, of God’s coming into our very ordinary lives as one of us. Advent reminds us that there must always be something MORE in our lives, some greater freedom, some greater light, some greater goodness. Humans must have a future for which they can hope. Advent reflects and re-presents the yearnings of our own hearts. It reveals those aspects of ourselves that are not “finished” yet; those places within us where we feel unsatisfied, unwanted, uncertain, afraid; those places where we have not yet recognized God present and at work. Each of us knows deep down that there is always something MORE. No matter how much we have, no matter how old or experienced we are, there is always something more.
As we grow in age and experience, we come to understand ever better that what our hearts desire cannot be attained by working harder, by having more experiences, by having more stuff. What we yearn for is a GIFT. Our life has been given us freely and without charge. But we will never get to the end of receiving that gift.
Our faith assists us in this “task” of receiving our life. Faith keeps hope alive; and hope may be the most crucial virtue for our times. We ask: Is there any way that things are getting better and not worse? Does it make any difference at all to be Christian people in this time? Do the Gospels matter at all? Does our faith help us live in the world in a way that matters? Do I personally matter? Is there anything worth waiting for? How can we hope when everything looks so hopeless?
These are questions we cannot answer by ourselves. For these, we need a community of people who understand the meaning of faith, who tell a common story that is rooted in faith and in the experiences that faith brings. Faith gives rise to hope. Faith believes that God has come among us in the person of Jesus Christ to share our lot with us. Faith believes that God is indeed with us on this difficult and sometimes bewildering journey, not to prevent sufferings and challenges, but to be with us through everything. Christmas reminds us of who we are and what we are for.
