“Man I don’t have time for this. It’s frantic right now you know. So much going on, you have to prioritize. Some things are more important than others. I’m just up to my armpits in work these days, couldn’t possibly.”
“Yea, well, who is this guy Jesus Christ anyway? It’s his birthday right? Look he lived two thousand years ago in a poor little region under the rule of the Roman government. Now there was an outfit. They made a difference those Romans: roads, harbors, beautiful cities. Israel or Judah, whatever they called it, was just plain unruly. They needed the Romans to oversee things.”
“And what did he accomplish? “Turn the other cheek”, what does that mean? “Feed the poor”, so tired of those panhandlers, really. “Believe” in stuff you can’t see? There’s a good one. “Love my neighbor”, never met them really. None of this stuff is relevant anymore really. No time for it and it just confuses things for me.”
“It’s okay for some folks I suppose. To each his own they say. But it’s not for people like all my friends. They are the best bunch. We don’t need this stuff, it’s for those other guys who don’t have it together. It’s for those simple people and such, unlucky, unruly, not us, hate to put it that way but…”
More on Advent tomorrow. Love you, Felipe.
For me, advent is a time of waiting and hope. Many of my friends don’t believe in hope, they think it is a useless human feeling that is a thinly veiled desire for things to be different. OK, to wait without hope for me, is an act of faith. I pray for things (name any of them) to be different. I have faith, that I cannot know or understand the “bigger picture” as you often call it dear Felipe. I have faith that my job is to wait, to watch, to pray and to act when and where I can, and my faith consoles me to let God take care of the rest – the big picture. So advent for me is a time of waiting, praying and acceptance of what I cannot know or understand – in that way, it is for me, a time of hope as well. Anyone who has awaited the birth of a child, who had stood in wonder to see the miracle of his or her birth knows something about this season. Who was that guy Jesus… well the answer varies depending on your spiritual tradition. I do believe that he was both God and man, that through his birth, life and death we have a north star by which to steer. The great German poet Rilke wrote: because inside human beings is where God learns. What do you think? Maybe we just are in partnership with the Divine. OK that’s my thoughts for the day. Bless you Felipe. Caminohead dinner here tomorrow night. 🙂
Wow Catherine ~ a Big Fat Greek Comment you got here. Good topic this Advent thing. Maybe we will turn it around in our hands and look at it from different angles for a while. So, what’s the difference between hope and faith? We could chew on that too. My eyes are closing, need to go, love you, Felipe.