Above and Beyond

This week, the Christian calendar turns over and a new liturgical year begins. The first season of the new year is Advent, which celebrates the promise of Christ's coming--in the past, present, and future. Much of the scripture read in churches at this time year concerns the end times, making for a rather disconcerting prelude to "Silent Night," eggnog, and stuffed stockings. One of the wiser preachers I've heard said that the eschatological texts of Advent invite us to consider the dimension of ultimacy against which our lives play out, and to which they proceed. In short, Advent asks us to look beyond the moment.

Many spiritual philosophies urge us to be fully present in each moment of our lives. I think this idea is a good one, and fully consistent with the Christian idea of "having life, and having it abundantly." Its major shortcoming is that our ideas and experiences of "presence," or "the moment," are necessarily limited. Even mystics' experiences of infinity, in which all familiar distinctions fall away, are still limited by one's capacity to absorb them. But that doesn't mean the mystic does not experience something that stretches the bounds of awareness, and straining to see beyond whatever situation in life may enrich the moment--or life--we thought we knew.

For all of us, there is some great beyond that looms before us, or sends out a dim signal from the fringe of our consciousness. Perhaps it is our sense of Spirit within existence. It may be a gap in a relationship we have been unable or unwilling to fill, or a half forgotten dream. For some it is a shadow within that they have never had the courage to dance with, or dispel. Perhaps it is our own mortality, or the End of Days itself, in whatever forms that assumes.

To turn away from the immediate and focus one's mind on these things from time to time can draw us out from familiar routines and beliefs that often serve as much to shield us from reality as to negotiate it. It can erode boundaries around our lives we had thrown up for convenience' sake. This is not often easy or pleasant to do. Not to do so is to diminish every moment in which we would fully dwell.

Whether or not December draws you toward a cradle and a star, the challenges of Advent are worth answering. Year round.