No, I am not referring to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ but to ‘receptivity, reflection, response’. In her reflection for the 4th Sunday of Advent in the Living With Christ (Novalis) misselette Ella Allen offers, “Our passion for justice, our desire to alleviate suffering, to support the poor, the homeless and the abused, to teach, to heal, to create, to nurture are calls from God inviting receptivity, reflection and response.”
First, God calls us to be receptive, that is, to be open to what the world is showing us. After opening ourselves to being receptive, we move to reflection on ‘what is this about?’ ‘What might God be asking of me or us?’ ‘What is God trying to show us?’
The third is the call to respond to what we have been receptive to and reflected upon. Ah, sometimes that is when we can become overwhelmed with the needs of the world and end up stifled. We all know the expression ‘Think globally, act locally’ so this last week of Advent is a perfect time to consider how we can respond. ‘Our passion for justice’ could lead us to write a letter, to pray for a situation, to attend an event. ‘Our desire to alleviate suffering’ may call us to do something to relieve the loneliness of a neighbor. ‘To support the poor’ may invite us to sign a petition to support a living wage. ‘To nurture’ may invite us to foster an attitude of non-violence, peacefulness, non-judgmentalness.
As we move through these last days of Advent leading to Christmas, let us continue to practice the 3 R’s wherever we are planted.
Nancy Sullivan CSJ