The weeks leading up to Christmas and school holidays are often a particularly busy time. Sometimes, the urgency to ‘get things done’ means that what we do isn’t always our best. It may be driven less by quality and more by ticking boxes. Our encounters with others can sometimes be like that as well – driven less by genuine love and more by expediency. Today’s Gospel reminds us that there is no room for either carelessness or complacency.
Some of us even thrive on being busy. Being busy makes it easy to not have time for reflection, to lose sight of when our actions lack the virtue, honesty and integrity Christ himself modelled. We can neglect our relationship with God and seek comfort in other vices – material possessions, social media, power and control, gambling, alcohol, drugs – perhaps to the point of harm. We tune out to Christ calling to us in the cry of the poor, the suffering, the neglected and the abused.
The Season of Advent opens with the call to pray constantly. By stepping back from our busy lives and making time for prayer, we can draw closer to God, genuinely reflect on our lives and act with love. Advent calls us to choose the way that leads to freedom and fullness of life. It calls us to choose the way that we know is not just a moral code but a person: God whose coming into the world in Christ we will celebrate with joy at Christmas time.
Am I confident that I am living in the way that leads to fullness of life?
Published in our parish bulletin, Carmel, 1 December 2024
Liturgy 