{"id":123011,"date":"2023-12-12T07:00:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=123011"},"modified":"2023-12-14T16:08:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T21:08:50","slug":"advent-and-the-art-of-living-dangerously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/advent-and-the-art-of-living-dangerously\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent and the Art of Living Dangerously"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cTwo roads diverged in a wood, and I\u2014 I took the one less traveled by,
\nAnd that has made all the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

-Robert Frost<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We have two roads to choose from in Advent.<\/p>\n

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The first is the safe road. It\u2019s the most obvious; the cozy, comfortable, much-traveled road of busy Christmas preparation with just a touch (ok, maybe more) of fragmentation.\u00a0 The roadmap is a checklist of ways we plan to make this the #BestAdventEver<\/strong><\/em> by accomplishing all of our goals and making our homes look Instagram worthy for the holidays ✨.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Many of us have been traveling this road every December for our whole lives.\u00a0 We\u2019re used to it, we look forward to it and the many lovely things along its path, even though we are also slightly exhausted by it…and we also long for something more – or perhaps more accurately, for something ‘less.’\u00a0 This time-worn and well-travelled road lets us chart out and accomplish our own comfortable spiritual and social plans and goals for advent- what we<\/em> want to accomplish in our own souls and circles before December 25th<\/sup>, making ourselves the cartographers, navigators, and captains of our own journeys.\u00a0 We may work hard on some important virtues, and try to keep our eyes on Christ and service to those he loves, but our focus is often a bit lost in the plans, checklists, and work we plunge into as we prepare for Christmas.<\/p>\n

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We also have the less traveled road, a dangerous road, an unknown but beautiful road, on which we abandon our well-laid plans and built in GPS, and simply follow Christ\u2019s voice.\u00a0 Our map is the liturgy of the Church, and Christ is the navigator who leads us along it’s paths, telling us in prayer where we must go.\u00a0 We simply ask our Lord to guide us as he sees fit, to create in us a pure heart to welcome the Christ-Child, and then take one step at a time with him.\u00a0 The chaos of the first road still exists on this path, but in a way that is more distant and muted because we are intensely focused on listening to the voice of the Shepherd leading us, not getting distracted by the flashing billboards along the way. It\u2019s the Advent road of the prophets who for centuries waited for the Messiah and gave us those incredible ‘O Antiphons.’ <\/a>We join them in their longing for our Savior, and like them, bravely invite God\u2019s pure and burning light in our souls to illuminate us in ways that we can\u2019t plan or control. We walk with the prophets and like them, experience both God\u2019s extreme tenderness and his powerful purification.<\/p>\n

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This is the road that truly leads us to Christ in Advent, but it\u2019s dangerous. It\u2019s dangerous because we are guaranteed to be challenged and purified on the journey, often in ways we wouldn\u2019t choose for ourselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The love that descended to Bethlehem is not the easy sympathy of an avuncular God, but a burning fire whose light chases away every shadow floods every corner and turns midnight into noon.\u00a0 This love reveals sin and overcomes it.\u00a0 It conquers darkness with such forcefulness and intensity that it scatters the proud, humbles the mighty, feeds the hungry and send the rich away emptyhanded (Luke 1:51-53) \u2013Watch for the Light<\/em>, Plough publications, xvi<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A dangerous advent is purifying, and filled with extraordinary love. God invites us to open ourselves to his light, to let him bare our hearts and souls, and heal the sin and wounds there.\u00a0\u00a0 If we desire him to scatter our pride, we must let him bring it to the light.\u00a0 If we want him fill our poverty, we allow him to first take away what riches we hold in his place.\u00a0 If we ask him to feed us, he will first make us hungry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A dangerous Advent is uncomfortable, in a beautiful way that promises lasting joy. God draws us close to himself and changes us with his love.\u00a0 He carves, purifies and prepares the \u201cGod-shaped hole in our hearts\u201d to be filled completely by him in his nativity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seeing Mary\u2019s Advent, we gain new insights into our blessed mother and watching her, we gain courage to live our own advent dangerously.\u00a0 The handmaid of the Lord walked God\u2019s path and not her own. She began her advent open to the light and will of God, not knowing what it would be.\u00a0 She just said YES.\u00a0 Her serene smile confounds our fearful self-sufficiency when we see that this peaceful mother went forward with courage and perfect trust even though she was afraid (Luke 1:29), and confused (Luke 1:34). She was young, pregnant, and on the verge of divorce as she walked in trusting darkness (Matthew 1:19), hoping in the promise of God.\u00a0 About to give birth, God\u2019s plan was still hidden from her. As they went from inn to inn during the cold night, looking for a place to welcome the Child, they discovered their Son\u2019s deep humility in choosing to be born in a barn despite all of their efforts (Luke 2:7).<\/p>\n

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In our dangerous advent, the obstacles may be similar or different.\u00a0 We may have difficulties with our marriages, our children, our temporal needs.\u00a0 Or we may be pulled in many directions by circumstances that send us not on a road to Bethlehem, but to the grocery store, to kids activities and social events.\u00a0 The important thing is to listen to the still small voice of God leading us at all moments.\u00a0 If we live these circumstances and walk these roads like Mary did, we find the purpose of Christ in all of them. We find what he wants to change in us, we recognize the gaze of love he fixes on us in each moment, and we gain trust to say FIAT to the ways he wants us to serve and love others whom we find along our advent path. Mary lived an Advent of challenges and unknowns with unconquerable peace and brave love.\u00a0 This allowed God to give His son a warm, welcoming heart that said yes to Him and not her own plans, and soft hands to hold him, empty of any attachments, simply ready to embrace the Christ Child.<\/p>\n

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He wants to do the same with us.\u00a0 Are we ready to say yes? This advent, under the surface of all of the external preparations and celebrations, let\u2019s ask God to give us the simplicity, courage, and trust to live advent in a real and dangerous way, the way Mary did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pope St. John Paul II wrote that we are an Easter People, and \u2018Alleluia!\u2019 is our song. We are also an Advent people this December, and \u2018O Come O Come Emmanuel\u2019 is our song.<\/p>\n

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Could but thy soul, O man,
\nBecome a silent night!
\nGod would be born in thee
\nAnd set all things aright.<\/p>\n

-Angelus Silenius, 1657<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n