Many people dread holidays, especially Advent and Christmas, because they lost loved ones during that time. Memories of the deceased creep up and torment the lonely souls amid the sound of Christmas shopping, music and TV commercials. Ministers, emergency room physicians, police officers are on heightened alert as the number of suicides and incidents of domestic violence is expected to climb.
Strangely, the most joyful season of the year is also the most fatal. The pain of loss nearly overshadows the joy of life, and the line between hope and despair gets blurred. I experienced this when my father passed away shortly before Thanksgiving in 1996, and then eleven years later when my grandfather went home with the Lord the morning after Thanksgiving--as though God wanted to test my ability to remain thankful in spite of tragedy.
As I pondered my grief, I began to see beyond the veil of anguish. There is a profound meaning I discovered in the death of a loved one. Henri Nouwen wrote after the death of his parent, “Mother’s death encourages us to give up the illusions of immortality we might still have and to experience in a new way our total dependence on God’s love, a dependence that does not take away our free selfhood but purifies and ennobles it.” (A Letter of Consolation, Harper, San Francisco, 1989, p. 53).
We live in a world of many illusions--the illusion of omnipotence, omniscience, self-sufficiency, success, and immortality. The electronic age with its life-prolonging and life-enhancing technology creates bubbles of safety we escape into when life hits us hard and our coping capacity is evaporated. Add to that the convenience of online self-help services and do-it-yourself literature available on Amazon.com.
The power of instant gratification seems too strong to resist, especially when they come at a discounted price in an electronics store. We can choose to remain encapsulated in counterfeit ‘heavens’ and never get to experience the abundant life Jesus promised. Or we let the bubbles burst and embark on the journey for which we were created.
Advent is an invitation to leave our self-created comfort zones, to choose God over gods, and to walk by faith, not by sight. As the Latin advenire denotes, it is the arrival--the dawning of a radically new age, when John the Baptist announced, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” With the arrival of a different kind of reality comes the promise that we shall have joy after sorrow, hope in despair, strength in weakness, freedom from fear and want. It offers us the assurance that we shall see our loved ones again some day.
We can trust this promise because we believe in a God who chose to become one of us and conquered death so we can have abundant life. “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Which bubble will you burst this Advent and Christmas?
Peace and grace in Christ,
Pastor Lui Tran