We are more alike than we are different . . .

Whispers in a dream
The world is quiet and waiting
And all around the air is still
And sings the angels - Gabriel's Oboe (Whispers in a Dream)

As we continue to move more deeply into a new liturgical year, we are invited to let the spirit of the Advent season influence the everyday events of our lives, to let it influence the way we connect and interact with others as people of hope. 

Recent world events have certainly challenged my ability to remain hopeful. As I watch the nightly news I am dismayed by the fear, lack of understanding and heartbreak being experienced by so many.  The world seems so divided. 

Advent couldn’t have come at a better time for it calls us to bring light where there is darkness, peace where there is discord and love where there is hatred. 

The prophet Isaiah challenges us to create a world where differences do not matter, where “the wolf will live with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.” (Isaiah 11: 1-10)  As we continue to face into the reality of the world’s suffering may we also face into the reality that we are more alike than we are different for we all come from the same God and are called to be examples of that great love for one another. 

The words of French Idealist philosopher and paleontologist Pierre Theihard de Chardin also give us reason to hope for he tells us that the process of evolutionary change flows over deep time. “Beneath the surface ripples and rapids, the river itself is still flowing smoothing in its channel.”  It is a fact that God will never give up on us so let us not give up on each other!

As we move more deeply into the Advent season let us turn toward not away from one another less we miss the presence of Jesus alive within each of us.

When all is come to pass
The storm has breathed its last
And the rain has washed our fears away
Love will fall on us all
And we can smile again - Gabriel's Oboe (Whispers in a Dream)

 

Susan Glaab, CSJ