Are We Prepared?

Dear Friend,

A parishioner spotted the headline and sent me the story along with a question: are we prepared? “The 2028 Los Angeles Olympic games and Paralympic Games won’t have venues in Santa Barbara County, but the region will still feel the impacts of the massive event.” A wake-up call, the 2028 Olympics! Here come the traffic jams and chaos in the Mission portico. The story quoted a local leader: “The Olympics is one of the things that keeps me up at night.” I could relate. How to prepare?

The Third Week of Advent comes with its own wake-up call: “The coming of the Lord” - as unsettling a thought as 100 buses outside the Mission. The Letter of James advises patience and get this: no complaining. “Make your hearts firm,” we read, “because the coming of the Lord is at hand” - closer than 2028? The dynamics of the “first coming” might be instructive. Christ came – I almost want to say “snuck in” – in the womb of Mary. Word of that coming arrived at the outskirts, to shepherds summoned to the manger to behold this most mysterious event where least expected.

First coming, second coming… both are at play in the drama of Advent. Both have global proportions – like the Olympics - each a summons to vigilance, and maybe loss of sleep…

Watching the Olympics for some inspires getting up off the couch and getting themselves in shape; for others the inspiration is to slump back down and just watch. For disciples, how best to prepare? What’s the challenge of Christ? I’d say spiritual exercise: radical hospitality, getting close to the “leper”, the outcast, a holy family in flight, welcoming those deadened by life’s burdens. That’s getting with it, like John, preparing the way!

Gratefully,

Father Dan, Pastor