First Sunday of Advent

Readings of the Day 

This year has felt like a strange, dark trip away from life as we know it. Although literally stuck at home, I feel akin to the man Mark describes, who leaves his home – I’ve long left the home of old-normal. Loss of normal, of routine, of expected, and for many, much greater losses. Loss of stability from reliable employment, loss of financial resources to pay for food, rent, clothing, and even loss of life. All this loss has brought greater numbers of individuals and families experiencing challenges to rely on the holy work of Catholic Charities. 

Today’s readings speak amid our current moment with global pandemic, protest and complacency, polarized neighbors, and disordered and disastrous cycles in our earth’s climate. Maybe Isaiah is right to claim that we have all withered like leaves. It can feel like it. The Psalmist asks the Lord to give us new life, and I feel my bones begging for this, aching for the arrival of renewed life, hopeful that what is unfolding will be better, more equitable, more inclusive, more closely resembling God’s vision for all of creation.

As you wait, God is faithful.

I find deep grace in tethering my flimsy life to the liturgical calendar. For all that has been upheaved and tossed about this year, for all the virtual gatherings and delayed visits, the abnormal holidays, the unconscionable loss of life, work, stability, and security … for all of this, here we are again at Advent. We arrive as we did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and so on. An echo of normal. I feel drawn in from the seeming tomb of quarantine to the quiet wondrous womb of Advent. God is faithful. Spirit is doing something here. New life is coming. 

There is a glimmer of light coming at the end of this Covid tunnel. When it dawns, our newly formed selves that have been worked over so rough-tenderly by our potter-God’s hands will step out into the light, for there remains much work to be done. As I wait, I watch for what our faithful God is shaping into being.

Kelly Hickman is active in several parishes in the Archdiocese of Seattle, serving as a Catholic Relief Services (the international sister agency of CCUSA) Ambassador and as Spiritual Advisor to her St. Vincent de Paul Conference.

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