November 28/First Sunday of Advent
But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. ~ Luke 21.28
It could have been lifted right out of the daily papers and social media sites, this passage from Luke. In the cosmos, disturbance and dismay. On earth, nations in anguish. All of us perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves of social unrest, environmental change, and political division. Like the ancient believers for whom Luke wrote, we are literally breathless, exhausted by the upheavals, full of foreboding about the future. The signs that Luke lays out for his audience speak no less vividly to us today. What, then, are we to do? How are we to carry on in a time of such dismay? Luke’s answer is both literal and metaphorical: stand up straight, from the Greek verb anakypto. Lift your head, and look up towards God. We are beset with worry, crippled by the anxieties of daily life, weighed down by distractions – all conditions that the evangelist accurately diagnoses in today’s Gospel. No matter how polished a public self we present, every one of us at some level resembles the woman in Luke 13.11, who is literally bent over (from the related verb synkypto), unable to stand erect because of an evil spirit. It may be a cascade of illnesses, or a troubled relationship, or an unsettled professional life, or just uncertainty about the future, but whatever our malady, it gets in the way of a full and free life. Yet the stance of those who nourish a connection to Christ is one of courage and hope. Filled with faith that God is in charge, that God can do what we cannot do and can go where we cannot go, we can lay down our fears and stand up straight, knowing the peace and freedom of life in Christ.
O God of all who live on the face of the whole earth, restore my weighed-down spirit so that I may face whatever is to come with hope and courage. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112821.cfm
To hear the Wells Cathedral Choir sing “I Look from Afar” (Aspiciens a longe), click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_qtwOhu3C4
