PERSPECTIVE FOR ADVENT

I'm taking this opportunity to tie together for myself a few thoughts and events that have affected me during this past week.

First, on Monday our monks' schola recorded a favorite Advent song of mine: "O Come, divine Messiah," a song of longing and hoping. (I hear that the recording got posted on the abbey's Facebook page.) As we sang, I felt my heart and my spirit truly longing for the Lord to come. Our longing during this season is, of course, focused on the nativity, an event in a particular place at a particular time in history. The emphasis is on Baby Jesus, God becoming a human being. But events in my life have encouraged me to expand my vision way beyond the stable in Bethlehem, and to consider also the infinitely wider notion of "The Christ" that I've reflected on previously in this blog (find it in the "labels" column).   

Second, I learned early this week that a very close friend of mine has received a dire diagnosis of cancer that will involve surgery. This news really upset me, and encouraged me to pray even harder than usual for this special loved one. 

Third, I don't think that it was a coincidence that I found myself looking at a video from the Hubble telescope and being drawn into the vast beauty of outer space. There are hundreds of similar short videos to choose from. One that I like is the flight through the Orion nebula. The sense of infinite vastness helped me to put into perspective both my friend's cancer and Jesus' birth in that little town of Bethlehem.

Fourth, again, not by accident, I happened to start reading a book that was given to me months ago, Chardin's "Hymne de L'univers," a lyrical, mystical approach to all of creation that starts way out there in the infinity of God's love for the world, using metaphors of fire and light, and the "real presence" of Christ expanding from the host on the altar to the utmost bounds of the universe. Very early in the book, Chardin meditates on the image of God's power and presence as fire. Here is a translation of part of his reflection:

 It is done.

Once again the Fire has penetrated the earth
Not with the sudden crash of thunderbolt,
riving the mountain tops;
does the Master break down doors to enter his own home?

Without earthquake, or thunderclap:
the flame has lit up the whole world from within.
All things individually and collectively
are penetrated and flooded by it,
from the inmost core of the tiniest atom
to the mighty sweep of the most universal laws of being:
so naturally has it flooded every element, every energy
every connecting link in the unity of our cosmos,
that one might suppose the cosmos to have burst
spontaneously into flame.

So, this week has helped me to deal with the news of my dear friend's illness by seeing it against the background of God's infinite, fiery love for all of creation.

It's been a good week.