The Wisdom of Tenderness from Speaking of Faith on Vimeo.

Undergoing God

Lately I have had this urge to buy something, nothing I need, nothing I have been planning to buy, nothing in particular, I just buy something so I can feel in control.  Anyone who has acted on this urge knows that the feeling of control is only that, just a feeling and a very fleeting one at that.  The Advent season is one of waiting and expectation, or I ought to say waiting WITH expectation.  Waiting with expectation is a key element in the spiritual life and in the life of anyone interested in Evangelization.

Waiting with, or without, expectation is not a popular discipline in our society and is quickly overrun by our well-honed discipline of impatience.  However to sink into the spirit of Advent, into a spirituality of Evangelization one needs to develop a keen discipline of expectant waiting – hope-filled waiting.

The central characters in the Advent stories are people in waiting; generations of prophets who longed for the holy moment, shepherds tending their flocks, Joseph and Mary searching and waiting for a place to stay the night, a most Holy Night.  Joseph and Mary were steeped in the stories, life and traditions of their faith.  They were people who not only understood but were willing to stand-under, to stand-in the mystery of what was happening in their lives.  They were not pushovers but people who questioned and pondered – took on God’s messengers, the angels, they kept their sense of wonder and awe; and were willing, as the author James Allison says, “to undergo God.” 

I can imagine Mary sitting in her mother’s lap, listening to the same stories in the Hebrew Scriptures that we read and listen to, taking them to heart, pondering them.  Joseph is described as a “good and upright man” steeped in the traditions of his ancestors, open to the promptings that came to him in visions and dreams.  After all the questioning and pondering Mary finally says, “be it done unto me according to Your Word.”  Mary allows the living Word of God to be done unto her; she is willing to “undergo God.”  Mary was so open, so willing to undergo the Word that she literally gives birth to The Word made Flesh.

Even George Frideric Handel understood that we are done unto when he wrote The Messiah; “…for unto us a child is born…unto us a child is given…” God is constantly doing unto us; in the people, places, events in our joys and sorrows, in our abilities and disabilities, in our strengths and weaknesses God is continually doing unto us.

A spirituality of Evangelization is all about waiting, pondering going to places of quiet and solitude where we can hear God’s Word, how the Word is inviting us to be open and be willing to undergo God.  Then this spirituality leads us out with a sense of wonder and awe, calling us to be awake and alert to all that is placed in our path.  This is our individual path and it is the path of a community of faith devoted to the evangelizing mission of Jesus Christ.  As such a community of faith we look at even the smallest things we do as opportunities to welcome and attract others into the circle of our life and mission.

In this Advent season of quiet and holy nights we need to reflect on how we, individually and collectively, as a community of faith can ponder the Word and find the strength to allow ourselves to be done unto, to stand under and in the Mystery and allow the Word to be done unto us – giving birth to the Word Made Flesh.

Peace, Fr. Michael Evernden, CSP

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