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Dear Diocesan Family,
Between the recent tragedies in Paris and California, the scary political rhetoric of presidential debates, and the fact that I had to turn on the air conditioning twice during December, I have found it increasingly diĸcult as of late not to fall into a kind of anxious pessimism about the future of our world. For me, at least, this Advent season has had a certain foreboding about it. Fear is the predominant mood in our culture right now, and the issues that appear to be driving that fear are ones that are global, inĮnitely complex and largely beyond the control of ordinary people.
But then, last week, just as that anxious pessimism was about to get the best of me and permanently darken my holiday mood, I experienced three events that
reminded me of how the greater goodness of God is always at work behind the scenes of everyday life. Each came as a kind of image of the Kingdom or glimpse into that “thin place”. The Įrst image was that of a food pantry in one of our parishes, stocked and ready for the holidays with food donations for the homeless. The second was the image of a naval oĸcer weeping with joy as she and her husband and teenage children all came forward together to kneel for confirmation. The third was that of a young person standing to take his ordination vows and to dedicate himself to service in the Church.
While each of the images was special in its own right, it was the three together over just a few days time that pierced my pessimism and reminded me how the grace of God is truly at work under the surface of everyday life.
In the face of the complex and frightening problems of the modern world it is someƟmes easy for us to forget that the presence of God is being made manifest primarily in and through the actions of faithful and faith-fĮlled people. God is making God’s- self present through the simple, human things. And this, of course, is exactly what Christmas is all about. What image could possible be more human and more ordinary, more beautifully simplistic than a newborn child in a manger? The Incarnation is the most subtle of all of God’s miracles. And this is what makes it so very powerful.
Right now the world is a place full of fear. And yet, I sense that however subtle, however simple, however “sub rosa” it may be, a divine revolt is being staged against fear. God began the revolt when the Word became Flesh 2000 years ago. God continues that same revolt through the faithful acts of ordinary people.
My prayer for all of us this Christmas is that we will remember to stop and look for the “thin places” where the grace of God is being made manifest in the people around us. And that in seeing them we will Įnd the kind of hope that opens us to new opportunities for incarnating the love of God in our own lives. Because it seems to me that the world more than ever before is in need - not for more pessimists - but more divine revolutionaries – people who know and believe that the Word has truly become Flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth – people willing to oīer the world an alternative to fear, and through Christ, a real cause for rejoicing.
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Noel,
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+ Holly Hollerith