Advent: A Time for Reflection

My wife and I recently watched Created Equal which is a biopic on the life and thought of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Among the many topics covered, the justice spoke about race and religion, both of which had a profound impact on his life and formation. I was thinking about this film while hearing the gospel reading for the first Sunday of Advent and thinking on the gospel for the feast of Christ the King. I believe there are some lessons here to take to heart for this Advent season.

Deafening Silence

Justice Thomas recounts how he was raised Catholic in Pin Point, Georgia by his devout grandfather. He eventually discerned a call to the priesthood and entered the seminary as a sophomore in high school. Upon hearing the news of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. being shot, Thomas recalls one of his fellow seminarians saying, “Good, I hope he dies.”  It was in that moment that Thomas decided he was through with seminary. He says that as a young man going through this time he was “angry all of the time.” A contributing factor to this anger was that the Church remained “largely silent” on the issue of race in America. Though Justice Thomas eventually found his way back to the Church, he writes in his memoirs that the Church was not so adamant about ending racism then as it is about ending abortion now.

The Church has done a better job recently of highlighting the plight of those who experience persecution and exclusion from society on the basis of racism. However, this episode in the Church’s and America’s history can spur us to reflection and action this Advent. In what ways are we being silent when we should be acting and speaking out? All social turmoil can be traced back to individual turmoil as Bishop Sheen said. If we would like to see something done in our country or in our world, then each individual must strive to have it done in their own life. We cannot personally be silent and inactive in our own lives and then decry the silence and inaction of people and groups within our society.

More than One Issue

Pope Francis has urged the Church as a whole to have a more holistic application of Her teachings and good works beyond hot button issues. Just as sacred, he says, are the lives of the poor and immigrants who are already born as those of the unborn. His concern is that issues of abortion and marriage are obscuring the urgency of other equally weighty concerns. We have seen above how the underemphasis of one such issue had a profound impact on one man’s life and doubtless other lives as well.

Now during Advent, it is an opportune time to remember the words of the Gospel on the feast of Christ the King, “whenever you did it to the least of these my people, truly I tell you, you did it unto Me (Matt. 25: 31-46).” In what ways in our life are we serving Him and in what ways are we being silent? What are the “hot button” topics we focus on in our own lives and which are those we tend to neglect? The idea is not to abandon what we are doing well but to broaden our focus and our efforts. We can never be content with what we are doing.

There is always more work that could be done on the part of our neighbor. As the famous phrase goes, we must pray as if everything depended upon God, but work as if everything depends upon us. Let us use this time of Advent to find areas where we can increase our work and focus on issues that we have neglected in our own lives.

Baby Steps

Now, it is important to remember that we do have natural limits to our energy, legitimate obligations, etc. This is not a call to ragged exhaustion. Rather, this is a call to seriously consider the plethora of ways in which we can live our faith and help our neighbor more fully. The actions do not have to be big. They can be as small as holding a door or donating an hour of our time. But the actions have to be manifest and they have to be genuine. Recall that in the Gospel for the Feast of Christ the King this year those who entered into Heaven were allowed in precisely because of what they did for their neighbor, not just for well wishes or thoughts. What is required of us is selfless work.

Advent Reflection

Such reflection and reorientation of work and energy, I think, would be a particularly fitting way of allowing the Lord to enter into our hearts this Advent.