“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” (Isaiah 9:2)
In the northern hemisphere, darkness deepens during Advent until the world turns ever so imperceptibly toward lengthening light. To those covered in darkness, the promise of light seems unimaginable. And yet it comes. Not because the promise is believable, but because the One who makes the promise is trustworthy.
The promises of God are indeed unbelievable, even outrageous. Yet they describe our hope for the kind of world we want now for ourselves and in the future for all those coming after us.
German theologian Jurgen Moltmann describes two ways we might relate to both the present and the future:
- “Futurum,” Moltmann notes, develops out of the potential of what is and what has been. It looks toward a future grounded in what is known and often signals predictable outcomes.
- “Adventus,” on the other hand, promises a future that comes not from the potential of the past or present, but rather a future that arrives from the realm of what is not yet. It is the inbreaking of God whose very essence is the unimaginable.
Futurum is a future more of our own making than of God’s providence. Adventus, though, startles our slumber, demands our attention, and makes possible all that seems the contrary.
Each year, Advent draws us into a weeks-long reminder of the utterly outrageous upheaval of the ordinary and the inexhaustible mystery that God once became human, and since then, all humanity embodies God.
We enter this season in cosmic chaos and apocalyptic disarray with images of wrath and judgment. The end is coming. The old order is passing away. A new world is at hand. But who really wants what seems to be on the horizon?
And then come the promises — promises that upend our logic and perception of how the world works, of what is ending and what is beginning. Swords become plowshares. Spears turn into pruning hooks. Nations no longer train for war. The hungry are filled, and the lowly are raised.
This longed-for future God promises pierces our despair and disrupts all of our expectations. If we allow it, it exposes our plans for what they often are — small and puny hopes in the easily managed, the most efficient, the least disruptive. And if we’re really honest, the future God promises is already ours to receive, and the world that we hope for is already ours to co-create …
- if we could only make different choices,
- if we could only do things differently,
- if we could only do different things.
Swords will not beat themselves into plowshares, and spears do not magically become pruning hooks on their own. It’s through our daily efforts in large and small matters that we help to fulfill even the most outrageous of God’s promises.
The God who became one of us, this God whom we embody, promises that darkness and despair will be dispelled by the light of radically different choices and courageous departures from the past. This God has already arrived in the world and continues to arrive each time we depart from the predictable and choose the unimaginable.
Consider the God of Adventus, waiting on all of us to awaken to our part in bringing about a new world order of peace, abundance, and hope. What is a courageous departure from your ordinary that could help you and your community contribute to this promise?
Consider the plans you have for your community. Are you planning for a predictable future or for an outrageous disruption of what is expected? Are your plans a “full inn” that tells the unexpected to go elsewhere, or are they an “open manger” ready to receive the unimaginable?
As you walk with your community during these Advent days, we wish you and our world a radical disruption of expectations, an upheaval of the ordinary, and courageous departures from the past. We wish you and the world Adventus.
The views and reflections expressed in this blog are solely those of Sister Mary Pellegrino, shared in her capacity as a consultant with Plante Moran Realpoint. They do not necessarily represent the views, beliefs, or positions of Plante Moran or Plante Moran Realpoint. We provide this content for informational purposes to serve our religious institutes audience and do not endorse any particular religious tradition or affiliation.
