St Patrick's Dumbarton

Month of December

If you have ever done an all-night vigil then you will know that the hardest part to stay awake is as dawn is breaking. You have struggled through the long dark night, but just as the first light begins to come, your eyelids are at their heaviest and you are in the greatest danger of falling asleep. You have struggled and now as you approach the finish, you relax and then you fall asleep. It is the same with hope: if you have had to wait a long time for it, the moments before your hope is realised are the moments when you are closest to giving up. We begin with enthusiasm and determination, but we are worn down by time. So when we begin, we should understand that we will grow weary, that we will be distracted, that we will begin to doubt and waver. That is why we must prepare carefully. God did; he spent a long time getting things ready before Christ came. He knew the fickleness and stubbornness of the human heart, he knew the frailty of the human condition. But he did not for that reason abandon his plan; he just prepared carefully. Yet with all the effort of preparation it can all too easily happen that the great event itself seems almost like an anti climax: it is over and gone before we have had time to savour and enjoy it and all we are left with is exhaustion at our efforts. So the correct preparation must be about reminding ourselves what it is we are preparing for: The coming of the light St John tells us.
As the Christmas decorations are lit up and Christmas trees begin to warm the dark, as shop windows shed their welcoming light longer and longer into the cold nights it can happen that we mistake the light we are seeking. These are lights that spread their warmth all around us and that then seeps into our bones as we see merriment and joy, but it is a light that remains outside us. When the lights are turned off and the trees come down we are left saddened and aware of how bleak the cities and the nights are. We see the lights were just artificial and only made us forget the darkness, they did not dispel it. The light we seek dispels all darkness and casts out fear. So we must prepare for that light to come, that is the light we must discern. A light that is within us and seeps out from us to lighten our world, rather than lights that grow dim even as they seep into us.
Mary recognised that light and wanted to be part of it. It is strange she was not asked to be the Mother of God, but told she was going to be the Mother of God. This is how things will happen the angel said and Mary said she would willingly cooperate. She had prepared for it so much that neither God nor she had any doubt that she would be part of it. She had already embraced the will of God just as Christ did. That is where the light is to be found, that is what we prepare to do during Advent: to take hold of God’s plan for our salvation.

Video

Video
Click on the image to play the video	St Joseph School Studios