Life is hard. It can be unpredictable and often painful. Jesus reminds us that in this world we will have trouble (Jn 16:33). 2020 has left no one unscathed from the realities of living in a broken and troubled world. Celebration and suffering can often seem at odds - as if you must ignore one or the other. I think what Advent teaches us is that we live in a tension between the now and not yet. We live with longing, expectation, and hope, like people who say ‘all my desires are before You…’ and clinging to the prayer ‘and if not…’ He is still good (Ps 38:9, Dan 3:18).
A Blue Christmas service often held on the longest day of Winter, is an invitation to hold the tension of loss and expectation. To acknowledge that grief and celebration can exist together. To bring every part, good, bad, and ugly to the One who invites us to share our weary, and heavily burdened heart to the One who knows our need.
Whether your grief is an acute and specific, or a general hum from a difficult year, set aside time today to place all your desires before God. Pour out your heart to Him (Ps 62:8). He cares for you (1 Pet 5:7). Even when grief feels like it will swallow you whole, He will never leave you or forsake you (Heb 13:5). Our Suffering Servant was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isa 53). Take heart, nothing goes unseen by the One who loves you, and He has overcome the world. His first Advent, He stepped into our pain, in His second, He will do away with it once and for all.
'Come, let us return to the Lord;
for He has torn us, that He may heal us;
He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.’
- Hosea 6:1
To download a complete PDF of the O Antiphon Advent Devotional, click here.