ADVENT ATTITUDE
One of the first images that comes to us when we think of Advent and Christmas is surely (or at least hopefully?!) baby Jesus adored by shepherds, angels, wise guys, and holy parents. It’s that simplicity, that smallness, the poverty of the whole scene that I’m led to focus on. St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians that our attitude should be like that of Jesus: humbling ourselves and giving our lives away for others.
Jesus humbly steps down into the darkness of our world to bring all of us into right relationship with the Trinity (who is a relationship of Three!). He does this by becoming one of us, then he draws humanity up into God. He not only became human but he became a BABY human. A child, totally dependent. Completely incapable.
The Holy Spirit has been doing some work in me. I’m seeing that to be more and more like Jesus is to be more and more like baby Jesus. It has to do with letting go of control, surrendering, trusting. To have God’s attitude is to step out of ourselves and enter into life with other people. This is what he did: he stepped down out of heaven to engage us and surrendered everything for us. Why? Simply to be with us.
God’s attitude involves a mysterious interdependence. He is Almighty God, He has everything and needs absolutely nothing. Yet, He traded that to become one of us. Even though he needs nothing, He wants us to be with Him. The irony is, we need absolutely everything. And when we trust Him with everything, then we need nothing more.
The Advent Attitude is about genuine love and humility. True agape` love is to will the good of another person, at great cost to me. Not only are we to follow Christ and step down from our comfort into relationship with other people… but we are to raise them up in esteem. Jesus drops nearly everything to enter our world. Theologians call it Divine Condescension. But there can be a danger for us that opens a door to pride. When we reach out to others, offer to help, give charitable gifts, step into their world; we might be tempted to think of ourselves as the Great Self Satisfaction.
The enemy of our soul sees us attempting something holy and tries to trick us into thinking we are the superior reaching down to help someone lesser, poorer, younger, weaker. We have to be honest: in our desire to help, do we see people sometimes as a problem to be fixed, a wound to be healed, a project for our good deeds? We can fall into the mindset of looking down to give a helping hand, instead of looking up and seeing dignity in someone’s eyes. Be honest, do we ever think, “They are so lucky to have us help them?” We must be on guard against this poison of pride. Bishop Fulton Sheen used to tell prisoners the only difference between he and them was that they were caught for their wrongdoing!
St. John Chrysostom was writing about Jews and Gentiles coming together in the Body of Christ. He wanted to emphasize that the Jews were not on a higher playing field. He made it clear that Jesus did not just raise the one to the level of the other, but that God has produced a greater thing altogether: “as if one should melt down one statue of silver and another of lead, and the two together should come out gold.” This is what our Lord does for us. He is so humble and meek and merciful. When we enter another person’s life, a spiritual synergy can take place where both are impacted by the other; God’s unseen presence is doing a mighty work of mutual gift.
When Jesus encountered the woman at the well, he dignified her by asking for her help; he asked for a drink. And then he offered his never-ending living water to satisfy her thirsty heart. When Jesus came upon contagious, reeking, and unclean men with leprosy, he would draw near to them in their loneliness and befriend them with human touch. He offered his holiness to overtake their disease. When Jesus looked into the hateful eyes of his executioners, he forgave them. Then he went to the cross to crucify their sins. And when Jesus saw a hurting, lost world from his heavenly view, he allowed himself to be born a human baby. Then he taught us how to be perfectly powerful by becoming perfectly poor.
The Advent Attitude is total gift of the self to draw close to the other.