COLUMN: The Advent path is not an idle, or easy, journey – Enid News & Eagle

We are approaching the end of Advent our season of pregnant waiting, for the arrival of our Lord.

This season will end on Christmas day with the birth of Christ, just as our waiting will abruptly come to an end when Christ comes to usher in His Kingdom.

But, during this life, what is the object of our waiting? What are we preparing for during this Advent of our earthly journey?

Christ tells us the nature of this Advent time: If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

This Advent journey is not idle time. And it is not an easy path. On the contrary, if we plan to actually follow this Christ whose birth we wait to celebrate to really step into his bloody footsteps were promised we will face hardship.

The path of true discipleship, of a true Advent heart for the coming of Christ, calls us into a radical reordering of this world to prepare His Kingdom.

Mary, the Blessed Virgin, tells us this in her Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55): He has shown might with His arm, He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

That represents a complete overturning of the world as it is as it always has been if we follow in Christs footsteps.

If we are to follow Christ, we cannot allow our vision of Him to be blurred or blinded by pride, greed, fear and hatred. By hedonism. And, we must be willing to take up our cross, and face the response of a world that is threatened by the radical love of the Gospel.

In 1 Corinthians 4:11-13, St. Paul gives us a view of the identity we must be willing to take on, in the eyes of a world threatened by righteousness: To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world right up to this moment.

If we are to follow Christ in a radical movement of love that lifts up the lowly in ways that terrify the mighty we must accept opposition in the world.

We must expect the sting of the lash. We must embrace the crown of thorns, pressed onto our head by a world that worships power and is threatened by grace. We must walk with him through the spit, the jeers and condemnation of a world that speaks Christ on the lips, but reviles Him and the Gospel at heart. We must place our feet in His bloody footsteps, and drag our cross to Golgotha, where we die to the greed, envy, hedonism and hatred of this world.

In our Advent discipline, we must look within, and ask ourselves: How prepared are we to walk in this path?

Lord Christ, you do not call us to an easy path. Give us the strength and courage to take up our cross and follow you. Lord God, help us to die to ourselves and serve only you. Amen.

Neal is a News & Eagle columnist and staff writer. He can be reached at jneal@enidnews.com and online at emmauspath.church.

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COLUMN: The Advent path is not an idle, or easy, journey - Enid News & Eagle