A Reflection for the Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
Find today’s reading here.
A voice cries out:
Within the desert prepare the best way of the LORD!
Make straight within the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low … (Is 40:3-4)
It happens each December without fail, though we could also be failing. Within the bleakest midwinters, when the sun-lit moments are shortest, when the cold is creeping through every crack, pressing against every door, when the season’s darkness threatens to engulf us, pervading every moment, degrading every emotion. It’s that voice crying within the wilderness, don’t be afraid, make ready, throw open the door. Deliverance is coming; he’s coming.
How often are we nearing the top? Pushing against our limits. Bereft of affection and patience, breathless, furious. How close are we to giving up altogether? Not running from our demons, but falling consistent with them, spooning with misery, indulging in suffering.
How near the sides of sorrow when each December comes around again, offering this ineffable gift, this latest starting, hope to the hopeless, friend to the friendless, blessed prince of peace and mercy. How we’d like you so. We’d never stop sobbing, crying out in gratitude, if we truly understood it. Incarnation within the midst of all this squalor and waste. What did we do to deserve such? Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Pull it close. Hold on with all of your might. You can not be too greedy. It’s all good, all wondrous, all bountiful, all for you.
Get to know Kevin Clarke, senior editor/chief correspondent
Favorite Advent or Christmas themed art?
A Christmas album that goes into heavy rotation this time of yr in my family is “The Bells of Dublin” from the Chieftains, collaborating this time with a sometimes unlikely (Marianne Faithful?) collection of wonderful singers, including the late Nanci Griffith who offers a stunning rendering of “The Wexford Carol.” The album serves up vigorous Christmas traditionals which have not been bogged down by many years of music industry smarm and overproduction and includes some clever originals like Elvis Costello’s “St. Stephen’s Day Murders” and “The Rebel Jesus” from Jackson Browne.
Favorite Christmas tradition?
The suffering and kvetching of surly teens tasked with decorating a Christmas tree and wrapping the yard in twinkly lights!
What project are you most proud to have worked on this yr at America?
Dispatches, in fact! Please drop by and try our reporting from around america and around the globe:
https://www.americamagazine.org/dispatches
But amongst reports and evaluation of my very own:
A fun story: Meet the Dorothy Day, the newest addition to Latest York’s Staten Island Ferry fleet
A crucial story: Mississippi’s water crisis is a component of a bigger story: systemic racism and government neglect
A tragic story: The Jesuit priests killed in Mexico were greater than just names in a headline
An underreported story: The hidden crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic: 7.5 million orphaned children
A skeptic’s story: What if doubt is definitely good on your faith?
Favorite Christmas recipe?
I assume my Christmas memories regarding food circle the astounding holiday meals my grandmother used to place together in a tiny kitchen within the Bronx. I don’t think there have been any special recipes involved with the turkey, roast beef and ham she all the time served as much as my parents, aunts and uncles, and various cousins crowded into the apartment she shared with my grandfather. One “ingredient” I’m still attempting to work out is how she managed to serve all the things to so many individuals while keeping all the things hot. It’s a feat I even have never been in a position to replicate.
Favorite Christmas photo?
It’s identical to in the films, magical …
