Focus on the eternal this Advent season

 

 

 

Reflections on the church

EDITOR’S NOTE: This column is Barbara Ruth’s December 2006 article, which did not run because the December 2005 article was mistakenly sent instead.
This week I was listening to two very different tapes in the car while traveling to various meetings. The first was Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, reading his own work.
As a young man, Moore was following the track to become a Roman Catholic priest, but during his seminary studies, he decided to change direction and pursue music. Ultimately, he became a therapist interested in practicing from a spiritual point of view.
His work reinstated ancient language about the soul as the essence of an individual’s being and care of the soul as important for psychological and spiritual well-being.
Thinking about the Advent-Christmas season, what intrigued me was what Moore said about incarnation. He spoke about how a person’s soul “seeks the eternal” while thoroughly “embedded in humanity.”
The conclusion is that if we try to escape our humanity, especially by avoiding difficult experiences, such as physical or psychological suffering, then we are inhibiting the growth and care of the soul.
We live out of the fullness of our humanity as a way of seeking what is eternal, rather than avoiding being fully human to seek the eternal.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ celebrated at Advent-Christmas can be understood then as inseparable from the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ celebrated at Lent-Easter.
Jesus’ incarnation as a fully human babe in a manger includes the fully human suffering he endures at the end of his life. His suffering was not to be avoided, not only for our sakes as we usually proclaim but for the sake of his own soul. Fully embedded in humanity, Jesus Christ sought the eternal at all times, finalized in his resurrection to new life.
On a much lighter note, I was listening to a Prairie Home Companion Christmas show. Part of full humanity for me at this time of the year is all the preparations for the season that create stress and can put me in a foul mood.
Most of the talk I hear at this time of the year isn’t really happy talk but griping. A skit on this tape made me laugh.
Santa is waxing eloquent about the joys of the season when Garrison Keillor starts whining about how much work Christmas is. Santa tells him to quit sniveling and get out there and shop, shop, shop.
A choir breaks out into verses of this song, sung to the tune of “You’ve Got to Walk that Lonesome Valley.”
You’ve got to shop for Christmas presents.
You’ve got to shop all by yourself.
Oh, nobody else can do it for you.
You’ve got to shop for Christmas presents by yourself.
Thomas Moore says that the first place to begin participating in the fullness of our humanity is in the family. Connecting what I heard in these two tapes, I decided to look at the so-called suffering I endure making preparations for my family
Christmas is an exercise in caring for my soul. In the joy of giving and receiving, in the delights of lights and carols, in the pleasure of worshiping on Christmas Eve, I will be seeking the eternal expressed in the miraculous story of incarnation at the center of our celebrations.
Happy New Year!