Reflect This Advent

By REV. JASON KERN

Every year around this time I hear over and over again (and at times think it myself), “Where has this year gone,” or “I can’t believe it’s December already.” Time has a way of doing what it does, inevitably marching forward. While usually these statements are said to me with some kind of exasperation or projection of anxiety, I am reminded of how much good has transpired in my life. It is easy to get into a mindset of thinking that life just continues to spin and I am just a cog in the wheel of time.

Advent and Christmas have a dramatically different tone to them that invite reflection and quiet even as they make preparations for what is to come. Far from just accepting the passing of time as some inevitable lost cause, Advent seeks to force our reflection on both the future but also the present moment. Advent is certainly a season of waiting and yearning for the coming of Jesus into the world. It is a season of anticipation of when Jesus will come again in glory and bring forth a New Heavens and a New Earth. But, truthfully, Advent is a season of discerning the ways in which Jesus wants to enter more deeply into the recesses of our hearts. He desires to bring His Lordship into our souls through our receptivity to His Presence.

In the discernment of God’s will, it is only through welcoming the Christ that we can discover how each moment and each day are caught up in the Lord. If we want to know the purpose of time passing each day and each year, we must see ourselves as destined to eternal life with God. Jesus became human in time and space and in doing so sanctified all time. He is the Lord of every time and place and so our welcoming Him into the depths of our hearts allows for each moment to become a time sacred for the Lord. In other words, Christ reigns in our times and therefore makes every time and place meaningful and full of goodness.

Your life then becomes more than a rat race of activity going from thing to thing. Your life is of infinite importance insofar as you participate in God’s eternal plan. Welcoming Jesus this Advent renews your capacity to welcome Jesus into the world. It renews the importance of your role in God’s saving work in our world. Your life and vocation have meaning beyond our own capacity for comprehension. May we be caught up in the salvific work of grace that Jesus wins for the world by uniting Himself to our human nature and offering Himself in love for us. Come, Lord Jesus.

Please keep in your prayers this Christmas the five young men (to date of writing) that have received or plan to receive applications for seminary next fall (I am confident there are still more seriously discerning). God hears your good prayers and is working in the hearts of young men and women to not only hear how God is calling them but also to see how they are being called to serve God in His plan for the salvation of others through the Church.

Rev. Jason Kern is the director of Vocations for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.