Advent is on the way

Gardening is one of the joys of my life but I have never had success growing one of my favourite plants – the hydrangea.  Recently, a friend gave me two of these plants in pots.  One looked rather sick, in fact, as my friend warned me, it looked close to death.  Anyway, I clipped the dead wood and put the plants near my pond so they would be in a gentler microclimate.

Now, after a week of care, the more robust plant is in bloom and the sick one has shoots.  Each morning on waking, I would go to the plants with a sense of curious expectation.  What will they be doing?  They are flourishing.  The sick one has shoots that seem to be growing minute by minute.  It is fast becoming robust.  My curious expectation has become joyous expectation as I look to see what will happen next.

So much of our Advent and Christmas symbolism, whether popular or liturgical, is northern hemisphere.  How do we see Advent here where December is light, heat and the growing season?

Advent looks to the coming of Jesus who is light, hope and promise.  We celebrate his first coming in human flesh.  We also celebrate in hope and promise, his second coming at the fulfilment of time – the Eschaton - the fulfilment of all creation in Christ that is yet to come.  However, in Jesus’ Resurrection that fulfilment is already present and active - sometimes visible, sometimes very hidden.

My daily encounter with the hydrangea reminds me to look for these signs of life wherever human dignity is affirmed, wherever tenderness for all creation is visible, wherever those who are broken and ignored are welcomed and given voice, wherever love triumphs over greed and despair – no matter how small.  So, joy and hope displace despair.

I want to recognise these small green shoots of life in my own daily life as well as on the global stage.  In recognising, to deepen gratitude; to change mind, heart and action and so become the green shoots of the Risen life greening the world.  St. Peter calls it the ‘spread of the resurrection’ (1 Peter 3:11f). 

So often though I think my attempts are small and of little significance.  However, that is to think in the ways of dominant power.  The power of the Holy One of Israel is revealed in the Jesus, an insignificant birth in the huge Roman empire; an itinerant Rabbi in a small slither of that empire who talked about mustard seeds and lost coins; who healed one-to-one-to-one and who died in fidelity.  In Rising, he turned our expectations inside out.  This is the paradigm for our greening no matter how small or large are our canvas of encounter.  This is the power of reverence and mercy.

The readings of the last weekdays of the year speak of the final coming of Jesus in glory and power.  That final coming is here and it is not in armies or display.  We must read these passages in the light of Jesus’ acts in the Gospel.  Jesus has come in every act of reverence, forgiveness, tenderness and justice that we carry out.

So, let us pray for and support each other and pray for and support those who act in the major global events in order to bring hope and dignity to those who suffer and give voice to those who have no voice.  May they have the courage to continue in the face of what often appears to be events beyond comprehension. 

So the promise of Advent will be fulfilled.  

Our Advent of summer with its fruitfulness becomes a symbol of Grace already given and the fertile power of God’s mercy to all.  Advent invites us to take part in this growing life of the Resurrection and so Christ’s final coming in glory will be visible in mercy, forgiveness, justice and dignity – wherever life is affirmed.

Meanwhile, back to the pond: as an added bonus, (and lest I forget the meaning) the marsh frogs are calling and about to lay their tiny eggs in the pond to accompany the flourishing hydrangeas.  Life is flourishing with the warmth of summer and some rain.