Advent draws us into an experience of a contrasting reality: the reign of God is the “already” and it is still “the not yet”. The ‘God who is’, who is with us right now and the ‘God who is to come’, that which we long for. The already, you are with us…you are with us in this season of longing…You, ever ancient, ever new. Can we feel this fresh yet ancient longing? We would not ‘long’ or ‘desire’ for something if we had not already experienced what we each cry out for in prayer and, through what feels incomplete within us. As St. Augustine reminds us, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions). As we abide in the ‘already’ presence of God, we lean into the ‘not yet’ of the One who is to come. Can you sense this?
“My blood is alive with many voices telling me I am made of longing” writes the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Advent is the time to be awake to this longing which pulsates in our hidden depths. Advent helps up prepare the inner ground, the stable of our lives, which will receive the new of God that is coming. ‘The not yet’ is stirring…only silence will help us to be sensitive to the subtle movements of the heart…and prayer to bring us to the quiet depths where this holy event will happen.
Guerric of Igny gives us this exhortation: “So, if you are wise, give an eye to yourself and see how you are using this delay” (Liturgical Sermons, sermon 1, #3, p.3). Giving a gentle eye to ourselves prepares us to receive the grace of this season. We have even a stronger exhortation in the gospel of Luke for the first Sunday of Advent: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy…Be vigilant at all times and pray” (Lk 21:34,36). Vigilance and prayer these are the spiritual tools we need. What do they offer us? Staying awake, alert to all that comes up in the heart. Being present, mindful to that which pulls us away from our true selves where God’s longing is silently encountering and speaking to our longing. The power of prayer will reduce and transform the negative energy, it will free us in the moment to rest in our longing. “My soul waits in silence,” says the Psalmist (Psalm 61).
“Your silent listening through prayer, through people and through events will be very personal; it may seem very solitary, but it is not. You are the answering readiness, the receptivity, without which even today God cannot give as he longs to give” (The Coming of God, p.7). In these words of Sr. Maria Boulding, we hear images of what our interior posture is to be, that which makes us able to receive God: silent listening, answering readiness, and receptivity. She then adds: “God longs through your heart…. God is on the inside of longing” (p.7, 8). We begin most often with what feels like ‘our’ longing. It is and still it is more as we can already feel the Divine Presence inside our longing. “My blood is alive with many voices telling me I am made of longing” (Rilke). This is part of our genetic structure; we are made of longing! God’s longing has infused every cell of our being. The mystery of the Incarnation, of Christ’s birth, is the gift of God’s very self to us. And Advent is the time to renew and deepen our faith in this miracle, that more of God’s life, peace, and love is coming into our lives. The Incarnate One, the One who was born 2,000 years ago, the One who is right now, and the One who is to come into our lives and into our world yet again, ever again. Amen.
Sr. Kathy DeVico, Abbess
Chapter Talk – First Sunday of Advent – December 1, 2024, cycle-C
