Advent 2019

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Advent 2019

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1John5918
Dez. 1, 2019, 2:15 am

An Advent reflection from Richard Rohr

I hope it isn’t difficult to understand why I’m beginning the Advent season reflecting on darkness...

Not knowing or uncertainty is a kind of darkness that many people find unbearable. Those who demand certitude out of life will insist on it even if it doesn’t fit the facts. Logic and truth have nothing to do with it. If you require certitude, you will surround yourself with your own conclusions and dismiss or ignore any evidence to the contrary.

The very meaning of faith stands in stark contrast to this mindset. We have to live in exquisite, terrible humility before reality. In this space, God gives us a spirit of questing, a desire for understanding. In some ways it is like learning to “see in the dark.” We can’t be certain of what’s in front of us, but with some time and patience, our eyes adjust, and we can make the next right move.

The Gospel doesn’t promise us complete clarity. If God wanted us to have irrefutable proof, the incarnation of Jesus would have been delayed until technology and science could confirm it.

Scriptures do not offer rational certitude. They offer us something much better, an entirely different way of knowing: an intimate relationship, a dark journey, a path where we must discover for ourselves that grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness are absolutely necessary for survival in an uncertain world. You only need enough clarity to know how to live without certitude! Yes, we really are saved by faith. People who live in this way never stop growing, are not easily defeated, are wise and compassionate, and frankly, are fun to live with. They have a quiet and confident joy. Infantile religion insists on certainty every step of the way and thus is not very happy.
(link)

In that regard, may I wish everyone an uncertain Advent!

2LesMiserables
Dez. 8, 2019, 1:27 am

Well, that sounds as close to Protestantism as you will find.

3John5918
Dez. 8, 2019, 1:29 am

>2 LesMiserables:

Sounds much more like Catholicism to me, particularly the mystic tradition which Protestants don't tend to favour. It also has deep roots in the Franciscan tradition, and its author is a Franciscan priest.

4LesMiserables
Dez. 8, 2019, 1:42 am

The Holy Gospels have definitive understandings. Anything else is a backdoor to subjectivity and Gnosticism.

5LesMiserables
Dez. 8, 2019, 1:43 am

Just read The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger.

6John5918
Dez. 8, 2019, 1:52 am

>4 LesMiserables:

That borders on the biblical literalism favoured by some Protestant denominations, which is definitely not Catholic tradition. As early as St Augustine the Church read the bible with more than a literal eye, and Dei verbum reaffirms the need for biblical exegesis. The Catholic Church, again unlike many Protestants, does not rely on Scripture alone but on Scripture and Tradition, implicitly recognising that Scripture did not come before Tradition but is in fact part of the Tradition. The gospels were written after the life of Jesus by people who were already part of a nascent Church, and that Church discerned which of their writings were to be considered part of the canon of Scripture and which were not.

7LesMiserables
Dez. 8, 2019, 2:14 am

6.
Not really. Rather a foundation in the tradition and teachings of the Church up until the modernist council.

8John5918
Bearbeitet: Dez. 8, 2019, 2:30 am

>7 LesMiserables:

Hm. Most of the mystics I am familiar with were in the 14th century, unless you include the Desert Fathers back in the 2nd century or so. And St Augustine was around the 4th century, I beileve.

9John5918
Dez. 24, 2019, 3:02 am

Richard Rohr again:

In the first 1200 years of Christianity, the greatest feast was Easter with the high holy days of Holy Week leading up to the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. But in the 13th century, a new person entered the scene: Francis of Assisi felt we didn’t need to wait for God to love us through the cross and resurrection. Francis intuited that the whole thing started with incarnate love, and he popularized what we now take for granted as Christmas, which for many became the greater Christian feast. The Franciscans popularized Christmas. Maybe their intuition was correct.

Francis realized that if God had become flesh—taken on materiality, physicality, humanity—then we didn’t have to wait for Good Friday and Easter to “solve the problem” of human sin; the problem was solved from the beginning. It makes sense that Christmas became the great celebratory feast of Christians because it basically says that it’s good to be human, it’s good to be on this earth, it’s good to be flesh, it’s good to have emotions. We don’t need to be ashamed of any of this. God loves matter and physicality.

With that insight, it’s no wonder Francis went wild over Christmas!... Francis believed that every tree should be decorated with lights to show their true status as God’s creations! And that’s exactly what we still do 800 years later.

Remember, when we speak of Advent or preparing for Christmas, we’re not just talking about waiting for the little baby Jesus to be born. That already happened 2,000 years ago. In fact, we’re welcoming the Universal Christ, the Cosmic Christ, the Christ that is forever being born in the human soul and into history.

And believe me, we do have to make room, because right now there is no room in the inn for such a mystery. We see things pretty much in their materiality, but we don’t see the light shining through. We don’t see the incarnate spirit that is hidden inside of everything material.

The early Eastern Church, which too few people in the United States and Western Europe are familiar with, made it very clear that the incarnation was a universal principle. Incarnation meant not just that God became Jesus; God said yes to the material universe. God said yes to physicality. Eastern Christianity understands the mystery of incarnation in the universal sense. So it is always Advent. God is forever coming into the world (see John 1:9).

We’re always waiting to see spirit revealing itself through matter. We’re always waiting for matter to become a new form in which spirit is revealed. Whenever that happens, we’re celebrating Christmas. The gifts of incarnation just keep coming. Perhaps this is enlightenment.


Link

102wonderY
Dez. 24, 2019, 7:52 am

>9 John5918:. This makes me smile. I believe I will share it with my children and grands today as we put up the crèche. It’s language that might reach their hungry souls.

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