Geography of the Advent Journey
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 20, 2009
Reflection for Evening Vespers
by Patricia Crowley, OSB.
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We have come to the Fourth Sunday of Advent, having journeyed through the city (with its layers of complexity), spent time in the wilderness (with its invitation to simplify our lives), and explored some of the many dimensions of water on our earth (with its invitation to flexibility in our lives).
As we proceed in the geography of this Advent journey, we walk the road through the hill country of Judah. Roads are important in physical geography and in the geography of our lives. Geography and roads do define our personal history and often have a profound effect on how we think about and relate to our God. In C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Malcolm entitled “Chiefly on Prayer”, he says: It is well to have specifically holy places …., for without these focal points or reminders, the belief that all is holy and big with God will soon dwindle into a mere sentiment.
The first chapter of Luke’s gospel mentions this road from Mary’s village to Elizabeth’s and ends in Chapter 24 with the wonderful Easter story of the two disciples encountering Jesus on the road to Emmaus.
Each of our geographical memories is unique for the roads we take are different. Your memory of geography may in Colorado, in Pennsylvania, in Kansas, in Moline, in Europe, in Indonesia, in France, in Canada, in New Orleans or on the south side or north side of Chicago? Maybe you do as I do – when passing by or hearing a reference to a specific place, often find yourself focusing on what memory we have of a specific place:
o This is the corner where we protested the aldermanic lack of support for a zoning change for Deborah’s Place, or
o I went to that house for a party after my high school prom, or
o that is the church where my parents first saw each other, or
o that is the street on which they were born 2 years and 5 houses apart (neither knowing of the other’s family until much later), or
o that is the house where a good friend used to live, or
o that is where we first cleaned several apartments to welcome our first Vietnamese families back in 1974.Roads are a way to get where we want to go. If we can figure out the roads via Google or MapQuest or AAA, we can usually get there. The road Mary traveled was undoubtedly dusty and winding. She knew where she wanted to go. She traveled as quickly as she could (in haste). Luke mentions no companion (although that is unlikely she really was alone…). Perhaps the presentation of her going alone is an image of each of our life’s journey. We know that life is a journey and one which we often must travel alone.
On the road, Mary was excited as she pressed on. She had just been startled out of her ordinary uneventful life. She clearly felt Elizabeth would welcome her story even though it probably seemed unbelievable even to herself. She moved in haste as we might do, when we are eager to share something with a person we know will welcome our news no matter how unusual it might seem.This particular scriptural road led from one woman’s house to another’s. It was traveled because of a lifelong relationship. Their worlds were changing and they sought out one another as women do all over the world as their ordinary lives are shaken and as they recognize that their worlds are changing.
Today, we, as a community of 47 women, are on a journey too. We are following a road. Each one here treasures her own call and her own insights. Each of us shares those with others who welcome our story and the story of our community as it moves further into the reality of our lives in 21st century Chicago.
In Luke’s story, with its geographical image of the road traveled by a woman, we find a road traveled in haste, traveled alone, traveled with a goal of sharing a new realization in a trusting relationship. We find a road that led humanity to recognize the brand new reality of incarnation within the womb of Mary. Luke says the infant in the older woman’s womb leapt for joy recognizing the new life present in the younger woman.
Roads lead us to many places and, in each journey, we can find the Incarnation anew in the people we meet on that journey, in the people we come to trust as they welcome our story no matter how outlandish our message.
Our journey together might be described as Patrick Hannon, CSC does in his book, The Geography of God’s Mercy (p. 128): We are like the stars of the Milky Way twirling in time, moving gracefully together across the dance floor, we call the universe, pulled and driven by a mysterious force that links us to the same amazing journey.
Jesus always seemed to be on the move, on the road. His journey links us together in extraordinary ways. Many religions capture the theme of journey in the notion of pilgrimage, which is described by some as a journey toward God. The journey theme is common in literature (the Odyssey, The People of God in Old Testament stories, the Grapes of Wrath and so many others). Our journeys, the roads we take, wind through the geography of our lives and proffer us opportunities to grow into a fuller human life.
As we celebrate this fourth Sunday of Advent, I end with John O’Donohue’s words:
Every time you leave home, / Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in……/ When you travel you find yourself
Alone in a different way / More attentive now / To the self you bring along…../ When you travel / a new silence / Goes with you / and if you listen / you will hear / what your heart would love to say / May you travel in an awakened way, Gathered wisely into your inner ground.
That you may not waste the invitations which await along the way to transform you.Mary fully realized herself in the Incarnation. She (and Elizabeth) awakened to new life. May we, too, awaken to new life within and respond to the invitations along the way that offer us opportunities to be transformed.