December 8th, 2011     |     by Jim Quigley
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I think it all began in Middle School chapel the first week of Advent.  I asked the kids what the day after Thanksgiving was called.  With voices full of electricity, unanimity and fervor they proclaimed:  Black Friday! 

This year more than any other time in my life the early darkness of the shorter days during Advent have had a deep and profound effect on me.  Perhaps for the first time the dark that descends before I leave work isn’t just an atmospheric phenomenon or the result of amending the clocks that mark chronological time but rather a cosmological metaphor for all that’s wrong in the world and how badly we need the light.

In the hour or so that I was awake before I left the rectory for chapel this morning I heard about more trouble in Pakistan and Afghanistan, about the looming global economic crisis, about the U.S. government dispensing with the unidentified remains of soldiers blown to bits by dumping them in landfills and a presidential candidate bashing gays and lesbians serving in the military.  And news just in:  Another shooting at Virginia Tech.  God help us.

But going to and working for the church hasn’t helped.  Even the most cheerful disposition is darkened by the Daily Office readings in Advent from Amos or from the Jesus in Matthew who starts every sentence with the words, “Woe to you.”  Even the Sunday lectionary has been rough, practically begging the preacher to be a buzz killer, reminding us that the Day of the Lord is a day of release for prisoners and captives but a day of vengeance for God – the day that the proud are scattered and the rich sent away empty.  Just as the economic culture of Christmas in North America begs us to consume more of just about everything, even electricity, the church asks us if we are really ready for the kingdom to come in our time. 

If we pay full attention to the darkness that surrounds us this Advent we shall be overwhelmed.  Helpless, in fact – frightened and dismayed by the reality of the world around us and impaired by our complicity with it; a fully engaged Advent leaves us completely in the dark. 

And yet, the Advent story that has unfolded already and is already unfolding is a story that tells us that there is a light that shines in our darkness and that our darkness does not overcome it.  The story unfolded and unfolding tells us that the light comes into the world in a time like ours.  If we are lucky enough to know the darkness, to be overwhelmed by it, then we shall also be able to see the light.  Without the darkness there can be no light.

Blessings for a Holy Advent.  May the darkness of our time help us to see the light.

Jim

3 comments

Anonymous's picture
Posted by Anonymous
Dec 19 2011 - 19:06
How blessed we are to be St George people!
I love these posts. We don't often get a chance to talk about things like our experience of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives. Such miracles of grace. I was at my spiritual nadir when he walked through my door. One fundamental thing I learned was, "you are not your own. You were bought at a price." and "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." When this settled into my spirit I was delivered of my own designs, my own opinion of what should or should not happen to me. And the anxiety about the darkness all but disappeared. I still see and feel the darkness and I still make plans and work diligently, excercising prudence when I don't get in my own way. But overcoming all is the presence of Christ in the Holy Spirit, relieving me of my self-importance, taking the burden of my plans from my neck. "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." AMEN
Anonymous's picture
Posted by Anonymous
Dec 19 2011 - 16:15
"If we are lucky enough to
"If we are lucky enough to know the darkness, to be overwhelmed by it......." I rather like the idea of being lucky enough to know the darkness. Not lucky in the sense that we usually count good fortune, of course, but lucky in that we sometimes have the chance in the darkness to learn who we are and what it is that we are truly capable of being. Our very hearts become larger (like the Grinch perhaps?) for our fellow travelers in life. Best of all, we know from firsthand experience that the darkness ultimately does not win--will never win--over the light. Perhaps it is a bit like silence and music. The most beautiful music in the world would lose its meaning if it endlessly looped, repeating itself over and over. Sometimes we feel God's presence in the climactic moment in a symphony but, if you think about it, the impact of the music is in its absence, in those few moments of silence when the beautiful sounds have stopped and before the applause begins. God is in the silence.
Anonymous's picture
Posted by Anonymous
Dec 8 2011 - 23:51
Tonight while driving home
Tonight while driving home from work I heard those same stories . I found myself wishing that I had not been paying attetion to them. I did not want to hear them. I had been hearing to many such things .I WON'Tlisten anymore. I want to be looking forward in joyfull anticipation. Tis the season to be jolly! Then I read your Advent reflection and it borought to my ming again, for the fourth time in three weeks, someting that happened to me about ten years ago. ......... I had begun to feel it, and had said NO! I do not want to ,nor am I willing to feel, this person's pain. I refuse to!-- However, it soon overwhelmed me and I gave in. -What I recieved later is hard to describe --- A presence, WITH me....IN me, comforting me. Unlike anything I had ever experienced. ---I was reminded this evening that some of my most profound joys have been experienced out of the painful ones. It is my hope this Advent that the Lord does indeed let me see and feel the Light,cause I am begining to feel overwhelmed.