RBWords - Volume 18 - Number 11: November 2005
Something to Think About
Occasionally in composing this part of RBWORDS I go back to previous issues to see what I had to say at the time. This is especially true on such things as the beginning of liturgical seasons. I worry about getting repetitive, even if certain things bear repeating. Over the past five years, the November issue has addressed a contested presidential election, a war (still going on), Young Adult Ministry, and yes, the Season of Advent. Our country remains politically divided, the war in Iraq is still going on, I am now in ministry to people of ages 17 through 100 here in Kentucky, and Advent once more challenges us to hope!
This year Advent invites many of us who were impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to hope. Although schools, church parishes, stores and restaurants are slowly beginning to reopen, the wholesale return of the population will take longer because so many homes were destroyed. Instead of rebuilding the OLD city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the efforts must be to build the NEXT New Orleans and Gulf Coast. Doing this in the face of possible storms in the season of next year (or even this year!) is truly an act of hope since the levees will certainly be no stronger than they were before! Our Southern Dominican parishes of St. Dominic, St. Anthony and St. Thomas More at Tulane in New Orleans are all holding services – even without pews or electricity in some cases in the church. Friends of mine who lived in the less-affected areas of New Orleans and the Gulf region are returning, even though the fabric of their lives has been irretrievably torn up. The body, the spirit and the environment has to heal. Believing that it WILL heal is an act of hope.
The timeless and continual gift of God’s love, celebrated especially at the end of this Advent season in the birth of Jesus, assures us we are not alone and helpless. Waiting for healing to occur can be very trying and frustrating. Advent assures us that God will be with us in that long and necessary process. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
It Has Been Said
God did not give answers; God gave himself, to save us, to free us from our sins. When Christ was born as Jesus in a barn in Bethlehem, that tiny baby bore our sins, and he bore them all his life as he grew into manhood. How heavy they must have been during his last weeks on earth when he knew that his dearest friends did not understand him and were going to betray him. How heavy they must have been when he hung on the cross. But for love of us he carried them. How blessed we are in his love!
From PENGUINS AND GOLDEN CALVES by Madeleine L’Engle