Advent Today
Yesterday, I found a copy of a paper written by a college student. ¹ I’ll name her Jeanne. I’d saved the short essay since 1986 and found its reflection still relevant today. Jeanne described one of her summer jobs that involved erasing with a pencil eraser and scrubbing the obscenities written on the stairwell of the building where she worked.
Hate for the job came out through Jeanne’s own obscene words, without the pleasure of scribbling them on a wall. Her body expressed anger, resentment and being trapped doing labor she judged to be below her. The task was poking holes in her sense of superiority and being a “nice girl.”
As the task wore on, Jeanne began to realize that the words she was erasing splashed out from people who were angry, caught in conflict situations, and lacked ways to express themselves without being destructive. She came to realize that the vandalizers did not have “efficient, nice and clean” or even creative ways to deal with their rebellious and hateful feelings, often in reaction to violence or injustice to them. Suspicions began to arise within Jeanne; maybe she and the vandals were more alike than she had first realized.
Jeanne ended her paper with an insight that probably will be a lifetime lesson for her: “I realized I was not far from those who put the words on the wall, both being human, we had commonality … In the space of time and involvement in a task, I realized a sense of commonness and continuity between my own earthiness and the writers on the walls where I was erasing and scrubbing.”
Jeanne closed her reflection with this insight: “A little earthiness and transcendence in the ordinary task.” What an Advent experience of Christ breaking into Jeanne’s perception of herself and possibilities for a change of heart and action!
Advent is a celebration of earthiness and transcendence: the Son of God becomes human. Advent blesses us with numerous ordinary tasks and other experiences that can deepen in our hearts and minds the truth that God continually becomes human today. We can learn to look for and expect blessings. Advent opens the door to Christmas, followed by the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. Opportunities to hear urgings in our everyday lives continue to abound. Awake! Be alert to possible encounters with God! Become more aware that Christ is coming to re-create our hearts, fulfilling the promise given in the book of the prophet Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts … I will put my spirit within you…” Together with all who are walking the Advent way, we say, “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). And Jesus tells us, “Yes, I am coming soon” (22:20).
¹ I give credit to “Jeanne,” whose real name I do not know. With or without a name, she has prompted us to look for “a little earthiness and transcendence in the ordinary task”; to look for and respond to Advent in our daily lives.
Mary Reuter, OSB
Photo by Tori Nefores on Unsplash.
