“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.” The Church opens today its new liturgical calendar with the desperate cry of Israel for God to come down and save them from their plight. In the first place, they know that their situation is of their own making. “Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean people, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.” At the same time, they hold on to a sure hope that God will heed their plea because “You, O Lord, are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.”
This situation of Israel (during the time of their captivity in Babylon) somehow reflects our situation today. Like them, we too wish that God would rend the heavens and come down to save us from our own self-inflicted helplessness. Because of our irresponsibility as stewards of God’s creation, the world is literally burning and heading towards ecological destruction. Nations are at war, and the usual victims are the millions of innocent children and civilians. More and more countries are being ruled by elected populist leaders and despots, who bring nothing but misery to their people. There is conflict everywhere: in our communities, our families and even in our own personal life. We cannot help but ask the same question that Motel (from the Fiddler on the Roof) addressed to the revered religious leader, “Rabbi, we’ve been waiting all our lives for the Messiah. Wouldn’t now be a good time for Him to come?”
As we celebrate the advent season, we recall the first coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah, in Bethlehem. At the same time look forward to his second coming when he will definitively establish the kingdom of God at the end of time. The core message of advent is to prepare for the Lord’s coming. Three times Jesus tells his disciples in today’s gospel to “be watchful and be alert… [for] you do not know the time when the Lord of the house is coming.”
But has not the Messiah already come? As for his second coming, we may not even live to see that day. What then is the point of advent? “Be watchful! Be alert!” This is what advent is about. We need to be watchful and alert because while the Messiah may already be among us, we can miss him, as his own people missed him two thousand years ago. Yes, Jesus is already here. We know that he is in his Word, in his sacraments, in our heart and in the hearts of our brothers and sisters. Last Sunday’s gospel reminds us that he is present especially in the poor. “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me.” (Mt 25:40) Yet, while we know that he is among us, we live as if he is not.
Ronald Rolheiser once wrote that somehow, we live no differently from atheists, not because we deny God’s existence, but simply because God is absent from our ordinary consciousness. God is not enough alive or important in our ordinary life.
This I think is the call of advent. True, Jesus is Emmanuel (God with us). But he came not only to live among us; more importantly, he came to share his life with us. “I have come that [you] may have life and have it to the full.” (Jn 10:10) Translate: I have come that you may live my life, which is the fullness of life.
Perhaps, more than asking the Lord to rend the heavens, our advent prayer to him should be to rend our eyes that we may see and recognize his presence every day and to rend our hearts that we may welcome him into our life.*
