When walking on the streets, I observe people around. Even on the move, some are busy keying in a texto! Others are hurrying, running to catch a bus or rushing to meet a deadline. Sad to say, many people are walking with stooped shoulders and sad faces. Their steps seem heavy, and their hearts even more so!… They move with their heads down seeming overwhelmed with negative feelings of all kinds.
As I read the gospel for this 1st Sund
ay of Advent (Lk.21:25-28,34-36), I thought of those people when I read the words: « Hold your heads high » (v.28). There is no denying that life can be hard at times – difficulties of all kinds keep coming at us: sickness, financial problems, strained relationships with the people we live and work with. Add to that the bitter regrets, dashed hopes, guilty feelings, lack of incentive, broken promises from those we love, and your list and mine could go on…
We really don’t feel like ‘lifting our heads high’ in such situations. We would be more inclined to bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich! How can we hold our heads high? We don’t feel the energy even to attempt doing that…
But the second part of verse 28 opens up a new perspective when it assures us: « Because your liberation is near at hand. »
People talk much of liberty, but liberation? Yet, is it not what we most need, all of us? Being freed from our fears and regrets, our obsessions, our tensions and frustrations – all that prevents us from being as God meant us to be. All too often, we find ourselves in a land of slavery – a slavery we may have grown accustomed to. This is what ADVENT is about: it is a time when we allow Someone to take over as he tells us: « I am coming, I am already here to free you from what is not your true self. » And it is the time to allow him to do so . . .