Painful Dissonance of Advent

 Advent is one of my favorite, and most challenging, seasons of the year. And perhaps this year more than many. There is a palpable sense of the "painful dissonance between the promise and hope of Christmas and a world wracked with sin and evil." The lights on houses and trees and the sounds of familiar carols stand in stark contrast to the bright flashes of explosions and the cries of the wounded and grieving in the Middle East, Ukraine, and so many other flashpoints around the globe. Hope seems at a premium and joy feels elusive.

Yesterday's Advent reading (I read each year from Watch for the Light by Plough Publishing House) made me sit still and ponder for a while -- and it has percolated in my heart and mind. Alfred Delp was a Jesuit priest who was hanged in 1945 because of his opposition to Adolph Hitler. In a piece written just before his death, he wrote:

"We may ask why God has sent us into this time, why he has sent this whirlwind over the earth, why he keeps us in this chaos where all appears hopeless and dark, and why there seems to be no end to this in sight. The answer to this question is perhaps that we were living on earth in an utterly false and counterfeit security. And now God strikes the earth till it resounds, now he shakes and shatters; not to pound us with fear, but to teach us one thing -- the spirit's innermost moving and being moved."

As I read these nearly 80-year old words, my heart echoed Fr Delp's questions. Why this whirlwind over the earth? Armed conflict. Disregard for basic human dignity. Oppression of women and the powerless. Political turmoil. Why no end in sight? We seem to never learn that violence and deception simply beget more violence and deception. Why are we still haunted by these same questions and issues and troubles? Is there no real hope?

Delp continues:

"The world today needs people who have been shaken by ultimate calamities and emerged from them with the knowledge and awareness that those who look to the Lord will still be preserved by him, even if they are hounded from the earth." 

So perhaps a core message of Advent is not the end of calamity or difficulty or upheaval, but a reminder that what we are experiencing in the here and now is not all that there is -- or will be. That this Advent season of waiting is not just waiting for Christmas 2023, but waiting for God to eventually renew all things.

Press on!