Dear Friends,
Have you noticed how many classic and contemporary Advent hymns include the word “come”? “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “O Come, Divine Messiah,” “Come, O Long Expected Jesus,” and “When You Come” are just a few examples. Invitation, openness, and longing are poignantly expressed in our Advent singing.
But what exactly does it mean to utter the invitation, “come”? How does that simple word capture our posture of Advent longing and waiting or God’s invitation to us? There can be an unsettling vulnerability to inviting God to “come.” It can leave us defenseless; it suggests incompleteness; it may require conversion. Above all, however, responding expresses trust and because it is about trust in God that trust can be deep and life changing.
And of course, the scriptures of Advent speak of the coming of the Lord and our invitation to approach Holy Mystery: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain to the house of the God of Jacob.” (Is 2:3, first Sunday of Advent). What does it mean to receive and respond to God’s invitation to “come”? Does it take courage? Another type of vulnerability? Responding to the invitation to “come” implies movement— leaving something behind to embrace something new. It calls for taking a step forward even when the end of the journey is not clearly in sight.
Indeed, we long for the coming of God into our lives every day, more insistently perhaps now than ever before. And we long also to respond to the Lord’s invitation to “come!” Advent is not a time to stand still. Since we are an Advent people, our life, at its deepest core, is a journey. Yes, living is itself a movement toward God and an openness to the God who desires to come and be with us more intimately each day.
Is it not fitting, then, to depict Advent with such images as open arms, hastening steps, perhaps a widening tent? We welcome Christ into our lives, not only in the Eucharist, but in the lonely, the marginalized, the difficult personality. Who knows where God’s invitation to “come” will take us? On a new adventure, an unfamiliar place, a homecoming? Our God is a God of surprises. May we hear the Lord’s invitation to trust and to live Advent more deeply this year. At the same time, may our own life become more an expression of the hospitality of God, a God who continues to embrace our humanity and walk with us. O come, o come, Emmanuel!
Peace and all good things!
Sr. Judith M Kubicki
Provincial Minister
