We are but three or two days away from the celebration of Christmas. I would like to offer only one reflection for this weekend ... there will be enough material for more than two days of reflection and prayer. As the sunrise picture above takes your attention, the theme of this meditation is "making a journey."Already millions of Americans have been unpacking in a different city, state or country. Many more will travel to new places to celebrate Christmas today and tomorrow. Wherever we might be for Christmas, what is involved for all of us ... travelers or stay-at-homes ... is the making of a journey.
Like most journeys, the days leading up to Christmas and the Christmas season itself, offer each of us the opportunity to answer a call. When we get ready for a journey to visit a far-away land or relatives living a distance from our home, we are usually responding to an inner yearning either to learn more, to experience a new culture or to answer the inner feelings that drive us to want to be with loved ones.
If you were asked the question "What is the call you have been asked to answer in the Advent and Christmas seasons?" how readily would you be able to answer the question? In a way this may be a trick question so consider carefully. Where does that inner voice calling you find its fulfillment?
Some might respond simply "To prepare for Christmas." Others might say, "Well, I really have not felt at particular 'call' in my heart from the Advent or Christmas seasons. As with any journey, seeds were planted in our hearts. It's time to visit the cousins. We should visit Grandma and Grandpop before they grow much older. That movie we saw made Italy so attractive. The Travel Channel presentation about the Grand Canyon has stirred my interest in seeing that part of our country. The first trip to Hawaii surely has set me up for future visits.
But, again, what about Advent? The upcoming Christmas season? Do you even think of those times as journeys? I propose to you that they are indeed seasons that invite you and me to set out on a journey. "But," you might ask, "where to?" Certainly not the malls! Advent and the Christmas season are journeys that do not necessarily give you, as the Latin scholars would write, a terminus ad quem, a point to which we might set out. The journeys of these two liturgical seasons offer us journeys without a known destination. As Joseph Dispenza quoting Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu, "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving."
The seasons mentioned are inviting us on a journey of self-discovery. This is for sure a journey without fixed plans or ends. A journey of self-discovery is a genuine experience in process. This is a journey traveled in search of God's calling to us each day of our lives. Each day, reading and praying the words of the readings for the liturgy, you discover more about yourself, the self that may not be so evident to others or yourself.
We are initially invited on a journey we make each year. However, each year we are, all of us, a little older and, hopefully, a little wiser. So we bring a somewhat different self to the readings. We have come to know some things about ourselves we did not know last year.
This year, for example, the joy of Isaiah's prophetic promises to the Jewish people about a Messiah who would become their savior, their redeemer, became real for me. Though I have read through the Isaiah readings for more years that I care to admit, it was not until this year that the prophet's joy became a part of my own prayer during this Advent season. In his words the prophet was attempting to bring the people of Israel to a new level of understanding the wonders of their Yahweh. Many moons later the prophets words and sentiments really hit home. Be joyful because this child that will be born, this child to be called Emmanuel, has come among us to be our redeemer. Rejoice. That is why we sing an Alleluia chorus.
