It's rather beautiful seeing all four candles lit on the Advent wreath.
It's also rather terrifying: there's only a few days left!
Thursday is generally my day off each week,
and
this past Thursday was earmarked for Christmas shopping.
I
put more than 200 miles on the car making my rounds,
and
found myself on many a wild goose chase:
items
out of stock, store staffers nowhere to be found,
stores
closed, one store gone right out of business.
Many
of the other folks I encountered—
whether
they were employees or customers—
looked
like they were enjoying themselves
just
about as much as I was.
As
my baby sister sarcastically put it in an email the other day,
Christmas
shopping is “essentially
a
winter wonderland of love, peace, and joy!”
When
I pulled back into Malone a little after 9 o’clock that night,
I
wasn’t exactly brimming with Christmas cheer;
I
was exhausted…and rapidly approaching cranky.
So
much to do…so little time to do it!
“Mary
set out and traveled…in haste…”
As
this Sunday we hear again the story of the Visitation,
it
can seem that even our Blessed Mother
has
been caught up in the pre-holiday rush!
But
Mary’s not running off to the mall in suburban Nazareth
to shop
for the nursery or register in advance of a baby shower.
Many
have assumed that her quick action
is
an indicator of her abundant charity—
although
pregnant herself, rushing to help her aged cousin
who’s
now quite astonishingly with child…
…but
if that were solely the case,
Mary
would have probably stayed put
until
little John the Baptist was actually born,
and
not returned home a whole month early (Lk 1:56).
So…why
the rush?
When
the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary
and
announced to her
that
she would bear the Only Begotten Son of God,
the
good news came with the promise of a miraculous sign:
that
Elizabeth, even though long barren, was now pregnant, too.
The
sign was Mary’s invitation to go—
not
so much to verify the Lord’s word
as
to experience firsthand
that,
“nothing,” in fact, “will be impossible for God” (Lk 1:37)
And
so, much like a band of shepherds
will
also later do at the prompting of angels,
Mary
hastens to see the sign—
a
swift and determined movement of her heart
even
more than of her feet along the roads of Judah.
In
my experience, anyway,
all
the rushing about at this time of year
tends
to cause me to miss out—
to
race right by the people and things that ought to matter most:
the
family and friends for whom I’m shopping;
God’s
sacred, saving purpose
which
set this frenzy in motion in the first place.
In
our haste to merrily mark the Savior’s birth,
we’re
moving so fast that we can fail to see and recognize his face.
We
need to learn and relearn from Mary’s urgency,
which
isn’t motivated by societal or sentimental expectations,
but
by the fervor and zeal, by the joy and enthusiasm of her faith.
Maybe
we need to set down our shopping bags for a spell
so
that our hearts, like Mary’s, can race to see the signs
the
Lord’s performing right here among us
and
get as close as possible to their heavenly source.
May
these last few days of Advent be for us
about
more than simply hurrying to meet a December 25th deadline.
Let
our haste—now and always—
be to
see the signs of where and how
the Lord is still working wonders in our lives.
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