Armodoxy for Today: Advent, the Positive side of things

We started the first week of our Advent journey meeting the “Rich Fool,” a character in one of Jesus’ parables (Luke 12). In a sense, he is what we may call a negative hero, in other words, he’s the main character of the story who teaches us what not to be. Negative heroes are all too common in religious stories as well as in real life. In politics, some may vote for a candidate because s/he is not the other candidate. In business, some may choose to trade with one firm because it is not the other company. In so doing, we focus more on the negative attributes of one, instead of the positive attributes of another and in turn, we start seeing our religious obligations and responsibilities in terms of what not to do, rather than what to do.

El camino de Adviento es un tiempo para prepararnos ante el mensaje de la Navidad. Al final del camino nos espera Cristo, como regalo, como luz, como Salvador. La expresión más extrema y positiva de la vida nos estará esperando y reaccionaremos ante ese don. Esa reacción es un movimiento, es un paso adelante en tu vida.

Over the past few days, we studied the Parable of the Rich Fool in different ways. At the end, if we are truthful with ourselves, we will discover that the Rich Fool is, in fact, us. Like the Rich Fool, we are each consumed by the riches and possessions which are polished by our ego, by our wants and desires. And all of these prevent us from experiencing the fullness of God and, therefore, the beauty of life.

Jesús introduce la parábola con esta advertencia: «¡Tengan cuidado! Absténganse de toda clase de avaricia; la vida no consiste en la abundancia de los bienes». Tomando esto en cuenta, la primera parte del camino de Adviento consiste en hacer un inventario de las cosas que importan y son valiosas en tu vida y, de manera proactiva, es decir, tomando una acción, celebrar la abundancia de aquello que es importante para ti, como tus relaciones, tu amor por los demás y la belleza de la vida que te rodea. Estos son tesoros sencillos al alcance de todos.

For today’s prayer I’d like to share with you a variation of Shnorhali’s prayer of the 9^th hour, with an accent on the positive: All provident Lord, give me the clearness of vision to look at the beauty around me, the sharpness of hearing to listen to and hear the music of nature, the courage to speak words of truth, the clarity of heart to think goodness, strength to my hands to work toward justice and to my feet to walk in paths of righteousness. Guide me always. Amen.