Advent C1 – Waiting

In the old times, very old times, new days began at sunset and new years began at the end of harvest. I like the idea that new things begin in hidden spaces, unseen and unnamed until they emerge hours and months later. It was the Romans who decided the new day started at the opposite of Noon. Even then, the new time starts at a hidden hour, a time when we are already asleep or starting to head for bed.  Meanwhile, much of plant life in the Northern Hemisphere is withdrawing their energy to underground safety. Seeds have been sown, leaves have been shed, insects, birds, and other animals take shelter. It looks like everything is ending, but this is the time that ancient humanity claimed as the beginning – not the end. 

Is it true to say that when something new begins, it actually begins with silence? With rest? With hiddeness? Unseen? Unnamed? 

Or is it very active in the hidden time? Mothers know the mighty rolls of a child stirring within her womb. Roots keep reaching out for new sources of water, nutrients, and other roots that carry critical communications between plants and fungi. The soul dreams while the body twitches. 

Advent, the four Sundays leading the Christmas, was intended to be set aside as a time for preparation. The Christ child, the inbreaking of God into the world, was coming and Advent is the season to get hearth, soul, and body ready. 

As the years have passed and the living members of my family spread out around the world, I have found less and less need to put up all the sparkling household decorations. I crave light and the smell of Christmas greens.

I think instead, this year I am seeking a way toward Christmas that looks to the old old ways, and to the ways of creation around us. I will accept that something new is beginning and that I don’t know what that new gift will be. I will look for, listen for the quiet signs of growth and if I find none, I’ll remember that first growth is often not seen. Sap returns to the branch but the only way we know is after it comes back and buds of leaves and flower start to swell in preparation of the great unfurling. 

This season I will ask God, the world around me, and myself what needs tending in this time of cold rest? Where does my energy need to go? 

This is Advent, the anticipation of the great breaking in. 

Just because its looking dark doesn’t mean there isn’t reason to wait in hope

For the new gift

The new world

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