Contemplating Today’s Culture through the Eyes of SS. Francis & Bonaventure
Rejoice in the Lord always;
Again, I will say, Rejoice.
Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
The Lord is near. Philippians 4:4-5
Advent disrupts our lives. It comes at one of the busiest times of the year. Advent asks us to slow down. And, when we have followed Advent’s pathway lit by the candles of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love in the advent wreath, we find ourself in a world that is bigger than what we could have imagined. No longer is Advent simply a time of preparation. It is instead a time of wonder as we take on new eyes, so that we can see the coming of the Christ in unthought of ways.
In a wild, self-absorbed culture, Advent is easily dismissed. Or, better yet, it is shrink wrapped into a packaged commodity to be sold as an anticipatory marker of Christmas. The nativity scene, so commonly displayed, has become a ritual of filling an empty crèche with sheep, shepherds, camels, magi, oxen/cows, donkeys, Mary, Joseph, and finally the baby Jesus, with perhaps some attending angels. Soon, the scene, with its deeply meaningful characters, becomes seasonally obsolete. It is re-boxed and stored again until next year.
And, what about our lives? We find that not much has changed. Really! We wait for another year for the Christ to do his magic and change the world, so that the promises of the prophets and angels are fulfilled. We are not too concerned because we have been taught that this is the routine or order of things. We hope that if the coming of Christ has meaning, it is for our personal salvation. Other promised events are for the work by God alone. Therefore, we spend our lives waiting, only to repeat the same Advent scenario again and again.
An individual approach to Advent is problematic in that the promises were meant not only for individuals, but more importantly for a larger community. The Hebrew scriptures predicted that the coming Savior would be to all peoples, and especially the nation of Israel. Individual salvation came as a later development promulgated by the church.
The Ten Commandments became rules to be obeyed, despite Christ teaching that there were only two commandments, namely, to love God first and your neighbor as yourself. Rules needed to be followed and enforced. The leaders of the church eventually became the monitors and enforcers of the rules. Disobey the rules, and one is threatened with eternal punishment.
The consequence of such thinking is the development of deep fear. Fear drives a desire to perform “corrective actions” to feel better about ourselves. The most common misconception is that by living a good life we can get into heaven, or by believing strongly enough in Jesus, he will save us. To allay our fears, we do the rituals of the church year after year after year, just like repeating Advent rituals every year. Sadly, the focus most often is on our own salvation, and not on what Jesus taught and demonstrated.
St. Francis and St. Bonaventure would challenge a repeating notion of Advent and expand its power. Individual salvation is assumed in the coming of Jesus Christ. However, the focus of Jesus was salvation of the world through the confrontation of evil or the “hidden powers” of the present world, not individual sin. Examples of the hidden powers of evil are poverty, greed, oppression, abuse, war, injustice, and the like.
The preceding are all examples of us existing without a focus on God as the source of all life. Jesus did not preach that a person needed to get their sins forgiven (although he forgave sins), but to go out into all the world and preach the gospel (the good news of the salvation of the world).
Worried about sin? There is no need. Even the angels repeatedly proclaimed, “Fear not.” Remember that Jesus Christ took care of all sin once and forever. He gave us all freedom to love ourselves and others because we did not need to live in fear of punishment any longer. That is called grace. Our future is secure.
Let’s focus on working toward the justice that Jesus was teaching. Advent calls us to take time and focus on becoming the image of Christ in this world, not simply being a spectator of Christ.
As you set up your nativity scene (or the church’s) this year, envision what the coming of Christ means to your work in the WORLD and not simply to yourself. Be willing to move beyond the repeating ritual and cycle of Advent that re-boxes and stores away the Jesus Christ of the manger. Ask yourself whether or not you have missed Christ in the past, and what you need to do this year to live in the image of Christ as you are filled with the light of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love of Advent.
Prayer and Blessings,
Fr. John
