Breath of the Spirit

Spiritual Essay

November 28, 2004: FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

I have to admit that today I am irritated by the commercialization of Christmas.  Actually, I have been for years.  My cousin came by last week and we went to a local mall after lunch only to be assaulted by a barrage of Christmas decorations designed to encourage us to spend money we don't have!  I am so not into spending money at Christmas.  I'm sure the merchants hate me.  With all the focus on spending, Advent inevitably suffers, and doesn't exist for many people.  It's just not a cool season to celebrate.  It's virtually unknown outside of the "high" churches anyway.  The advent wreath reminds us of the time God's people waited for the redeemer to make his appearance, yet that is almost unknown outside of convents and rectories. 

I don't decorate for Christmas, but love to have an advent wreath on the table.  It's hard to celebrate Advent when Christmas decorations go up in September, though.  Some people put up their trees the day after Thanksgiving, and I think they would be better described as Advent bushes, decorated with purple and pink.  A Catholic hospital where I worked did just that.  They really did have Advent trees.  Those nuns were clever!  I noticed some people a few doors down from me have had their decorations up for two weeks already.  They must be Baptists from Kentucky or Tennessee.  I'll have to ask them.  When the church begins the twelve days of Christmas, the secular society is discarding those trees by Christmas afternoon as yesterday's news.  Oh well, that is what we get for living in America.  Christmas is big business, time for profits, parties, and nothing more.  Besides, the January clearance sales will reap what the Christmas season didn't.  I liken it to going back into the fields to harvest those crops that were missed the first time, only this time it's just to move out the merchandise to make way for the new Spring collections. 

I'd like to go back many, many years ago for just a moment.  I remember writing letters to Santa with Ricky, my kid brother.  Many times our lists were the same as we were only 3 1/2 years apart.  We waited for Santa's arrival wondering if our hearts' desires would be under the tree.  We even left Santa a piece of pie on our coffee table just in case he was hungry.  Long before Ricky, I realized that the handwriting of Santa's thank you was our Dad's.  Of course I never said anything, and continued writing those letters year after year so as not to spoil things for Ricky.  Then I remember one Christmas at table when Ricky finally told us he knew who Santa really was.  It was as if he had lost a special part of childhood.  From that point on our celebration was one of adults, even though we were both still boys and would be for many years.

But Advent is so much more!  First of all we celebrate two things.  One we celebrate the period of time our ancestors in the faith waited for the promised redeemer.  Just as little kids wait to see what Santa brings with hearts full of excitement, Advent reminds us of the joyful anticipation the Hebrew people experienced as they awaited the coming Messiah.  Secondly we celebrate Jesus' coming in time, born of the maiden Mary, with her nervous husband, Joseph, by her side.  I often picture them as teens.  Mary, a mere 14 years of age, and Joseph, an "older man" of 19 or 20.  How frightened they must have been on that journey to Bethlehem!  How frightened Joseph must have been to have to help deliver the child, all alone.  I'm sure he wished his mother was there to help.  Had I been Joseph, I would have been a wreck, that's for sure.

During Advent we read from Isaiah, the prophet.  He reminds us this season is one of great joy.  Our God has big plans for us, and is about to show us just how incredible those plans are.  No longer content to send us prophets and kings, now God sends us his own Son.  For centuries we have waited for such a gift and now that gift is under our tree.  God has come to us, no longer though intermediaries, but now in the person of Jesus.

I have to admit that like a lot of glbt people I have some issues with the institutional church.  I am quite frankly angry about how we are marginalized.  I am angry with how we are relegated to second place status in a church many of us have served all our lives.  Don't believe me?  Just take a poll of those Dignity people you know who are religious, ex-seminarians, priests, musicians, teachers or those who have been involved in some kind of ministry all their lives.  I promise you, it will be an eye-opener.  We are some of the church's best and brightest.  If it weren't for us, most churches would look like Wal-Marts and the music at liturgy would be atrocious. 

Maybe it's time we focused on the church that is yet to come, though.  We know that eventually we will be accepted.  Throughout the church's history we have seen that those who were the leading edge of new thought were ostracized or at least suspect.  Why should we expect to be any different?  We scare people.  Galileo and Copernicus scared people.  But this Advent is a time for us to remember that as a prophetic people we have a message to share, and our voice will not be silenced.  While we speak the truth, we know others will oppose us and think they are serving God.  It is the same as it always has been throughout the centuries.  We can expect persecution, hatred and even crimes against our own person.  But we can take consolation in the fact that we are on God's side.  Yes, we are.  Our God is a God of inclusion.  God's son, Jesus, came to earth to demonstrate to us that no one would be excluded from the Kingdom who believed in him.  He reached out to sinners and ate and drank with them.  He loved them, and changed their lives.  He died trying to deliver that message, of love for all, but left the task to continue that message to us, the people of God, the church.  Let's focus on the future, not the present heartaches, and imagine a church that has yet to come into being.  It will be a church of justice for all, with love and acceptance as Jesus taught us.  Oh what a great day that will be!  Then, one day when we knock on the door of heaven and enter the door to the banquet Jesus will show each of us to a seat, and as a servant-waiter will ask us what we'd like to drink. 

Fr. Gary Kayler
Indianapolis, IN