As he set out on his public mission, Jesus proclaimed: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me; he sent me to bring Good News to the poor” (Lk 4: 18).
Advent is the first season of the Christian liturgical cycle and begins on the Sunday nearest to November 30, so it can be up to four weeks long. As a form of spiritual training, Advent alerts us to God present in us and calling us to be his people, sensitive to the pain of others and responding to those in need.
Most of the time, we may struggle to know what God asks of us. The busyness of our lives, the pain we may be suffering, or some other factor may block us from listening to God. We have so much on our plate that there is no time for God. Then, at times, God’s invitation clamours for our response.
I recall an occasion in Peru when God was clamouring for us to respond to a dire situation. The government of the day had decreed a massive devaluation of the currency. It was as if our government had devalued $10 to 10 cents overnight. Panic ruled the day. Most of us had no idea what to do.
However, some had the uncanny ability to see a way forward. Groups of women began to organise and, with the support of Mercy Sisters who worked in our parish, found ways to push ahead with communal kitchens. Eventually, there were 40 such kitchens in our parish.
With the help of Caritas, they sourced a free food supply that became the basis for meals, to which were added whatever they could buy in the local market with the little money that most families contributed. The most desperate received free meals. This situation endured for about two years.
God’s call to respond might also come to us as a whisper. Such was the case for the prophet Elijah on the run from his enemies. They sought to kill him because he had killed their friends, the prophets of Baal (1 Kgs 18: 11–14). God spoke to him in a gentle, almost imperceptible breeze. At times, we need quiet in order to hear and listen.
During my early years in Peru, I was appointed to a parish where I was curate number four. As a result, I was often asked to do the jobs that others preferred to avoid, one of which was the early 7.00 am weekday Mass. The Mass was regularly attended by about 60 elderly women.
In 1 John 3:11 – 5:12, there is quite a bit about love and loving. Some of this passage was the first reading at one of the weekday Masses. I prepared the homily and delivered it with relative confidence, given my limited fluency in Spanish.
After Mass, I removed my vestments and cleared the altar. I waited as the women left the chapel, which was, in fact, a choir loft that had been converted into a chapel for smaller groups, as the main church was enormous. On seeing that one of the women had remained and seemed to want to speak to me, I approached her. Initially, she commented positively on the homily. Then she went on to explain that love was not necessarily quite as I’d indicated in the homily, the evidence being the story of her life.
She had endured infidelity and abuse, to which she had responded with courage and determination. A grandchild of African slaves brought to Peru to work on coastal estates, she had been in an arranged marriage to an older man. She had two children with him when she discovered he had another woman. He insisted that was how life would continue. So, she packed whatever she had and set off with her children to make her life in Lima, where she had more children but never again allowed herself to be domestically subject to male authority. She was a feisty woman, living life to the full - independent work in a market as a butcher and active in local politics. She loved to party. She also remained close to God.
Despite the difficulties and injustices of life, there was no bitterness in her. She was full of compassion but was nobody’s fool. In the hurly burly of life, she had learned to listen to God. Accompanying the procession in honour of the Lord of Miracles (El Señor de los Milagros) was one of her favourite annual religious activities.
I believe that she not only listened to God but that she lived in Christ. She truly believed the words of Romans 8: 2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death”. 1 John 5: 11–12 speaks to us similarly: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son”.
Columban Fr Peter Woodruff lives and works in Australia.
Listen to "Reflection - Season of Advent"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - November/December 2022
