Wait — whose advent are we celebrating????
My dad recently noticed that one of the Christmas albums we listen to every year has a bit of a “mixed-message” (his term–and what an understatement!). One of the lyrics goes:
Let us thank the Lord above that Santa Claus is coming tonight!
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
As one of my online colleagues put it, non-believers have taken the holiday and made it fit their own purposes. I guess the real war on Christmas comes not from the Jews and Muslims and Pagans who have different festivals altogether, but from the semi-faithful who prefer their American commercialist traditions over the penitential season developed by the Church over centuries.
I’ve said it for years now: Save Christ from Christmas!
Is this symbolic?
Today I was driving to my parent’s house, and I got lost — 60 mile detour….
I fear this resembles my spiritual life of late….
The Paradox
The thing I’ve been having trouble with lately is realizing that there is no contradiction between the Cosmic God and the Personal God.
It’s not a problem for God to keep his eye on 6 billion individuals and 13.5+billion light-years of space. It’s only a problem to my limited mind.
What does God require of us?
From Ezekiel 34 — a good lesson on what we should be doing as priests of the Lord Most High:
Thus says the Lord God:
“Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.”
May we be faithful to do all that God desires of us. Amen.
