Recently, I have been struck by how often our New Testament readings draw on the wisdom of the Old Testament. In the Sunday Mass readings, the first reading, the Old Testament reading, and the Gospel capture the theme of the Mass. Often the New Testament is an allusion to the Old, and reminds us that the inspired word of God to Israel captures the heart of what it means to relate to God.
One such truth is the presence of God everywhere. “Where can I flee from your face…if I take the wings of the dawn and dwell at the sea’s furthest end, even there your hand would lead me.” (Ps138). God is everywhere, but, while we acknowledge the truth, we often don’t live as if it were true. Jesus promised us that he would be with us all days, yet we are often unaware of him as he comes to us in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner. (Mt 25) We need to work at reminding ourselves of the presence of God that is always there in our life.
We can work at the practice of the presence of God in our lives. Traditionally, things like the angelus were ways to cause us to stop and turn our hearts to God, reminding us that God is there in the very things we are doing at this moment. We can identify places, events and occasions when we want to be conscious of the presence of God. By doing this, we gradually work to being aware of the divine presence which is the natural context of our life as those made in the image of God. The divine milieu is our natural environment, just as the sea is the natural environment for the species that live within it.
When we come to this awareness, it must affect our life. When we are conscious of being in the presence of the Lord, we are less likely to do things that are contrary to the lives we are called to. We know that in this moment, God reaches out to us, and we are able to respond. Within this moment, we can tap into the divine power to do what we know we should do. The present moment is so rich. Is it any wonder that it has been called a sacrament, and that we can build our life around the sacrament of the present moment? The French author, Pierre de Caussade has developed a spirituality around this very principle: the sacrament of the present moment.
“Lord, that I may see” said the blind man to Jesus. This could be the prayer of every believer: to be able to see with the eyes of faith, and to recognise the divine presence in every moment of our life. We were created to see with the eyes of faith. We spend so much time trying to see more clearly the events around us from a human point of view, but often spend little, or no time at all, working on our faith vision. It is appropriate to remind ourselves to take up this challenge as we enter into the Church’s liturgical season of Advent.
Advent is a time of preparation for the celebration of Christmas. Christmas is the celebration of a deepening of the divine presence in our life through the incarnation of the Word; the birth of Jesus the Son of God. It is a time of remembering the presence of God before this coming, in the lives of the people of Israel and in creation itself. Presence is an important theme of the season of Advent, and the awakening of our consciousness t that presence should be to the forefront of our living of the season.
Let us not waste Advent. It points the heart of our faith: God’s loving presence to us. One of the tiles given to the Messiah, to Jesus, is “God with us.” “Be awake” was a constant theme in Jesus’ preaching: be awake to the presence of God, to Jesus himself coming to us through the very events of our life. If we live Advent with this attitude, what a wonderful year 2012 will be! My prayers for you this Advent will be that you will take up this challenge.