As Advent
approaches, let’s consider this observation by Sr. Melannie Svoboda: “Advent
tells us Jesus is coming, yes, but paradoxically, it also says Jesus is already
in our midst! We just need to know how to look for him.”
Sometimes it’s
hard to let go of the message we learned in childhood that Christ only comes to
us when we are engaged activities universally acknowledged as holy, such as being
baptized or receiving Holy Communion. Kilian McDonnell, OSB, offers a different
viewpoint in his poem In the Kitchen,
about the visitation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary. As McDonnell pictures it, when
the angel appears and Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she is not at
her prayers but is in the process of wiping up some water she had just spilled.
God, who has
full understanding of our messy human lives, doesn’t wait for a few pristine
moments to come to us; God meets us where we are, in the midst of our daily
activities. Therefore, if you don’t think you have a prayer of getting any
housework done in the weeks leading up to Christmas, perhaps it’s time to
reconsider. When you look with the eyes of Advent, you might, like Mary, encounter
God while doing the laundry or loading the dishwasher!
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