ELEVENTH DAY OF ADVENT

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Preparation—Seeing Dimly
Repentance—Seeing Differently

Waiting taxes us. Often we focus so on the hope to come that the now loses its worth; so anxious are we to get there that we waste the opportunities of the going. We veil what is in the hope we can see what will be. But we are called to prepare. To prepare for the new we must see the now differently, we must repent.

The call to repent clearly defined the ministry of John. Away from the cities, the regular business of living, the excitement of power and wealth, John calls us. His crying is in the wilderness; we must go there if we are to see the coming salvation. We must go to the dark places within our souls and within our world.

Look within—see what you like and what you don’t. Repent, rejoice, forgive, give thanks. Look around—see the world as God intends and as it is. Repent, rejoice, forgive, give thanks.

Now we are ready to wait. For below the darkness of sin is the darkness of faith. Thomas Merton wrote in his 1966 Christmas letter: “Faith must be … rooted in the unknown and in the abyss of darkness that is the ground of our being. No use teasing the darkness to try to make answers grow out of it. But if we learn how to have a deep inner patience, things solve themselves, or God solves them if you prefer, but do not expect to see how. Just learn to wait, and do what you can and help other people.”[1]

How does your repentance affect your waiting?

Dialogue with your family, friends, God. (Use your imagination if family and friends are not present.) Pray your dialogue with God.

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.

[1] Thomas Merton. The Road to Joy, Robert E. Daggy, editor (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1989): p. 94.