As we enter the Season of Advent we begin our preparations for the Nativity of the Lord not by reflecting on the beautiful passages of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, instead we are confronted with the image of the coming “Day of the Lord.” As we completed last week the three- year cycle of readings, this week opens the next three-year cycle. So we have the opportunity to reflect here on both the very beginning and the very end.
Apocalyptic and eschatological language and images frighten some people and leave others hopeful. The same readings cause different visceral reactions.
Our recent presidential election reintroduced apocalyptic fervor in the language. “This is the end” some have warned us. The time of America is over! Yet, others offer a sense of hope that we will be “great again.” Change, especially when it is not a change we can accept or believe in, brings about a painful consternation and a sense of despair.
We can read the Gospel in the same way. We can worry about the coming end of days when one person is swept away and another is left behind. That dreadful series of books and cinema that focuses on those who have been “left behind” elicits fear and dread about the coming kingdom. We see some of this same sense of virtual hopelessness even from some of the visionaries and mystics in the tradition of the Church. The coming of the Kingdom of Heaven will be a nasty and violent eruption of the world in the final apocalyptic cataclysm between God and Satan. Indeed such imagery builds upon our sense of hopelessness and leads some to that deep despair called angst.
The realization of the Kingdom of Heaven is our goal. This is what we work for and long for our entire lives. We as disciples of Jesus yearn for the day when we enter that kingdom and share fully in the mystery of life prepared for us.
We as Christians must always live our lives in light of this most fundamental of all beliefs. We long for the coming of God’s Kingdom in our midst.
St. Paul challenges us to live lives of faithfulness, setting aside the distractions of the world around us, focusing instead on the presence of the kingdom in our midst. It is not easy with so much noise in the world that can easily lead us to a sense of hopelessness. Political rhetoric with its unabashed anger and hatred can leave us all feeling like the world is spiraling out of control and we are all doomed. Playing off of fear is an ancient and vile strategy used to control the masses, and today we are no less vulnerable to that tactic than were our ancestors before us.
We cannot allow ourselves to fall into that trap. We are men and women borne of hope and made ready for the peaceable kingdom of God by virtue of our baptism. This is our starting point – this is who we are. Our focus is not on the plight of those left behind but on the sure and certain hope of those who were taken away.
As we approach this Advent Season, let us keep focused on the real task at hand: getting ready for the next adventure – whether in this life or the next – that the Lord is calling us to.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.