First Sunday of Advent November 29, 2009 Reflections at Evening Prayer by Patricia Crowley, OSB.

Our lives have been amazingly fraught with unexpected happenings these past weeks. As Advent begins we are invited to pause.

I want to suggest that, as we pause, we focus on where we are and on the thought that we are shaped by our geography. The physical place, where we live, as well as the journeys we take in our life times, shape us. The places we come from, this place where we live, this city, this neighborhood, this building - all affect who we are as a group of people.

I invite you to think about your own individual geography and about the geography of our community both in terms of where we are physically and where we have traveled. That geography forms us as a group.

We call ourselves an urban community. The city is a rich image and one worthy of our attention. Cities are layered with complexities (of concrete, of structures, of roads, etc.) and with webs of relationships (political, economic, familial, etc.).

The city shapes us:

1 with its busy-ness,
2 with its complexities,
3 with its political maneuverings,
4 as well as with its ability

o to renew itself,
o to beautify itself and
o to constantly re-create its own reality.

Advent is a journey through many specific and rich geographies. Today, on this first Sunday of Advent, we focus on the city of Jerusalem. The next three Sundays, we will journey through other points in the spiritual landscapes presented by the gospel according to Luke.

The city of Jerusalem, at the time, was simultaneously:
1 one culture and many different realities,
2 simple with its temple as central and complex in its politics and its economics and so many other things,
3 sacred and fiercely materialistic
4 etc.

This morning, we heard a passage from a Lucan discourse on the imminent destruction of Jerusalem, set in the context of Jesus’ moving toward that city and followed by a description of Jesus spending days teaching in the temple courtyard and then, seeking nightly refuge outside the city to avoid his enemies’ treachery.

Luke’s gospel, is highlighted on each Sunday of Advent, on many weekdays in Advent, and during the coming liturgical year for Cycle C, is based on a premise that all in Jesus’ life’s journey leads to the city of Jerusalem and from there to the whole world..

Luke had traveled widely with Paul and writes to assure people who are not of the Jewish tradition that Jesus’ message and reality go beyond the Jewish people and that message took shape in Jerusalem.

Luke’s descriptions of the city of Jerusalem and its certain destruction is a fitting backdrop for the Lucan picture of Jesus as transcending and going beyond the past notion of God, of the Messiah, Luke’s Jesus is one who is for all, a cosmic phenomenon, rooted in Judaism, but one whose message is exploding throughout the world to many different peoples.

Just as a city renews itself and re-creates its own reality through the years, so, too does the Lucan Jesus who goes beyond the traditional sense of God in and through that city of Jerusalem. So, too, can we re-create the urban geography of our lives.

Advent is an opportunity to know where we are and it is a chance to bring new birth into our lives.

The urban image of Jerusalem, called by Jeremiah “God our justice”, is worthy of our attention this first week of Advent.

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