SHORT ADVENT READS (this one holds a little humor) Advent Day 7 - Love Both Gentle and Fierce What does Gods love looks like in a world gone wrong? During Advent we prepare for the Incarnation, when Jesus reveals a God who is nothing but love. But this enfleshment takes place in the midst of a fallen, sinful world. Therefore, it will naturally appear threatening, strange, or off-putting. Consider when you are in a particularly grouchy mood, when things are not going well. Who is the most obnoxious person to have around? Someone who is in a good mood. There is no one more annoying to a grouch than the sunny optimist. If you have been stuck for two weeks in the depths of a cave, what would be most tortuous to you? Light. If you have been swinging a golf club incorrectly for many years, who is most painful to you? The teacher who compels you to change everything youve known and to swing in a new way. The world, on the biblical reading, is a dysfunctional family. As G.K. Chesterton put it, Were all in the same boat, and were all seasick. Therefore in light of this disorder, when Jesus comes, he necessarily comes as a trouble-maker, as a breaker of the peace. Its helpful to remember during Advent that there is no contradiction between Gods gentleness and Gods fierceness: they are both expressions of his love. They both emerge when love breaks into our dysfunctional world and sets it right, which is precisely what commences at Christmas. There is no contradiction between Gods gentleness and Gods fierceness: they are both expressions of his love. - Father Robert Barron
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:04:23 +0000
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