"Get Ready"
Fr. George Wertin
Sunday, December 8th, 2002

Advent is still my favorite season:

Last Sunday Pat Walsh spoke about “Waking Up!” She challenged us to wake up and find the divine in the human. She reminded me of the little story that tells about the baby fish asking its mother “Where is this water that everyone talks about?” and the fawn that asks the doe “Where is this air that everyone talks about?” and the seeker who asks the spiritual master “Where can I go to find God?” And the master answered, “Where can we go that God cannot be found?”

But we must move on and ‘Get Ready!’ - for what???

No, all of these are ways of escaping our present realities. [Story of person who was preoccupied with getting to heaven. She dies and goes to heaven and an angel escorts her to a place of great beauty. “What is this place?” “This is the world you lived in and did not see.”]

We are invited to get ready for tomorrow on this earth. We are invited to get ready to move forward Jesus’ agenda in his world. What is that agenda: “Be compassionate as your God is compassionate” What is compassion other than an intense listening to and understanding of the other - whoever that may be; family member, neighbor, president, political opponent, Muslim, Israeli, Pope, ex-spouse, terrorist, Somali immigrant, etc……

I always remember the poster that a friend of mine had on his wall: “Ministry is bringing comfort to those who are afflicted and challenge to those who are comfortable.” Most parishes do a very good job of being Communities of Consolation. They provide resources for parishioners when they are hurting and need support and care. But what we need is to balance that out so that we are also Communities of Compassion. We do not just exist for our own sake and be turned inward. We also need to be turned outward and follow Jesus’ mandate to be the leaven in the dough, the salt that gives flavor, the light of the world.

Recently I heard an interview on the car radio with Eric Kleinenberg He wrote a book entitled ‘Heat Wave’ about the epidemic of deaths created by the heat wave in Chicago in the summer of 1995. It was a significant national catastrophe in which 739 people died. Most of them were elderly, living alone and with no one to care for them. It was more than a natural disaster. It was also a social tragedy because it reflected the breakdown in our society. I am convinced that the biggest threat to our society is not from security breaches by outsiders threatening our society. It is from the breakdown of our society in which we find people taking care of themselves but ignoring the common good - in other words, the failure to build communities of compassion in our society.

I also see that there are many people of good will who feel frustrated with what is going on in our world and don’t know how to respond. I hear people feeling burdened who say what difference can I make? Mother Theresa said it simply: “God did not ask me to be successful; God asked me to be faithful.” Advent is a challenge to go within and find the spiritual energy to go on. It is a time, not to walk alone, but in solidarity with other members of our spiritual community. It is a time to be a people of hope - of light in the darkness. Advent is a time of reflection, a time of getting in touch with the divine within us.

The poet captures the essence of it very well. T.S. Eliot writes:

We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion… Happy Advent!

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