Today’s Life-Line is:

A homie named Cruz spent his last dollars taking a Metrolink train sixty miles to Los Angeles from San Bernadino, where he had relocated his lady and newborn to avoid the dangers and desperation of his previous gang life. He had a part-time job but could not get his boss to give him more hours. Now he sits in my office rattling off a list of the pressures and needs of his family. With no safety net in sight but me, he speaks of no food in the fridge, no lights, landlord looming, no bus fare. When he finishes this breathless account, Cruz stops, shaken and exhausted. He grows teary-eyed and says quietly, “I just keep waiting.”

“For what, son?” I ask.
“For the last to be first.”

~ Gregory Boyle, S.J.

Observant Jews believe the Messiah will come when the people are genuinely righteous — which is their burden. Christians believe the Messiah has already come — which is our burden. To self-identify as a Christ-one means that between Christ’s first coming and his second and final coming it is always Advent. Advent reminds us that it is our responsibility not just to wait passively, helplessly hoping, but rather to participate in and enact here and now the best we can some of the fullness for which we wait: a welcoming embrace, being at home, shalom, justice, kindness, radical acceptance, true belonging, lasting communion, equality before God, charity, an end to suffering, healing, blessing, beauty, to love and be loved.