Advent Reflections
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2022
By Ben Horton, Assistant Dean for First-Year Students and Academic Support
One need only to turn on the nightly news to find evidence of a world seemingly devoid of hope. War in Ukraine, human rights violations in Iran, China, and elsewhere, famine and illness, political collapse, greed, gun violence, and dire poverty can all seem like harbingers of a grim future for humanity.
As the world emerges from an unforeseen global pandemic, isolation looms large. While 98% of the millennial generation owns a smartphone for daily use (2021 Nielsen Data), studies in Lancet Psychiatry indicate that millennials and Gen-Z are more disconnected and isolated from others than ever before in recorded human history.
Two-thousand years ago, the people of Israel found themselves in a similarly grim reality. Occupied by foreign adversaries, social unrest and political upheaval were rampant. The people of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea longed for salvation and for a great military leader who might deliver them from the woes of their troubled world. They yearned for justice, peace, and unity.
Their long-awaited redeemer, however, was not a military genius, nor was he a political mastermind. Their savior did not command armies, nor did he trample upon their foes. He was the humble son of a poor carpenter and a young, unwed mother. Into a world of chaos and bereft of hope, came a helpless infant child.
I often think of what it must have felt like for Mary and Joseph on that first Christmas night. Traveling under the pretense of a civil census, returning to their ancestral homes to ultimately pay an unfair tax to an occupying force--what did they feel? Poor, pregnant, and tired, they likely found themselves frustrated by this wholly unjust and miserable sojourn. What emotions might they have felt when there was no room in the inn? What pain must have they endured trekking through the desert on the backs of donkeys, or on foot? Did they have enough food? Did they have the proper equipment?
Perhaps the two never fully recognized at the time, that the artifact of this unjust scenario would become the wellspring of justice—a savior for all mankind. What joy must they have experienced, the first time they truly looked justice in the face as they beheld their newborn son? Today’s Gospel tells us:
“Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”
As we journey together in this blessed season of Advent, may we strive to bring justice, love, and peace to the world around us. May we remember that “the root of Jesse” is our source of hope and deliverance from all human flaws, difficulties, and trials. Let us model ourselves on the examples of Mary and Joseph, who overcame the injustices they faced to deliver the greatest Christmas gift of all to the world.
Daily Challenge: Find a special way to bring people together to create peace and justice in your community today.