For God So Loved the World

As we enter this season of Advent, I felt a sense of uncertainty in exactly what I was going to write about for this article. There were a few hot topics in the Catholic headlines, I have just returned from making my Cursillo, and the Immaculate Conception of Mary is coming up on the Liturgical Calendar. But, none struck me so much as the phrase with which this article is entitled: For God So Loved the World. This season of Advent is a time for reflection on just what those words mean.

Can you imagine, being so loved that someone would humble Himself to such an extent as to become you so as to fully embrace and lead you? It’s quite like the story of the geese caught in the blizzard. A farmer finds a flock of geese gaggling about outside of his barn. The winds are howling, the snow is blustering, and he is trying with as many attempts as possible to lead them to safety, out of the snow and into the warm shelter of the barn. He opens the doors and lets the light fall on the flock, and they are frightened away a bit. He lays down breadcrumbs to try and lead them inside; he flails his arms, and tries to herd them in. He shouts; he tries to pick them up and carry them. Frustrated he thinks “If only I could be a like them, I could just show them the way, I could SAVE them.” 

It takes a certain amount of faith, does it not? To believe that there is someone who loves each and every one of us so much as to fully and truly humble Himself to that extent to lead us out of danger and into the light and warmth of salvation. This is what Christmas is truly about, God’s infinite and abiding love. 

The first week of Advent is dedicated to Hope. Hope is a tricky word. I mean, I understand Joy, I understand, or at least try to, Peace. Love is another tricky word, but I think in our heart of hearts we understand that. But, Hope? That’s tricky, particularly with a glass half empty thought process. Hope is that eternal word that begs us to renew, wipe the slate clean, to know in our deepest soul that we can see our way out of the darkness and into light. True hope is not a catchphrase but something more like a thin vein of steel running in all of us that makes us get off the ground when we simply feel we cannot. Hope is the divine calling to us to not only look up but also offer it up.

Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. These are gifts the Father has given us, if we choose to accept them is up to us entirely. The whole Free Will thought that we contend with as humans. He can’t make us follow Him, but through the miracle of Christmas, He walks with us to show us the way.