Every year, Advent begins in the dark.
Rev. Fleming Rutledge
In a recent discussion over coffee with a friar, I learned about the work and words of the Anglican Bishop of Zanzibar, Dr. Frank Weston (1871-1924). Shortly before his death, Weston delivered the concluding address of the Second Anglo-Catholic Congress of 1923, in which he urged those in attendance to “Go out and look for Jesus in the ragged, in the naked, in the oppressed and sweated, in those who have lost hope, in those who are struggling to make good.” (h/t Rev. MDS)
I couldn’t help but think about the following passage from the address as I found myself in Chicago this week walking past the homeless whose makeshift shelters were illuminated by the holiday lights:
But I say to you, and I say it to you with all the earnestness that I have, that if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in his Blessed Sacrament, then you have got to come out from before your Tabernacle and walk, with Christ mystically present in you, out into the streets of this country, and find the same Jesus in the people of your cities and your villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the Tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slum.
For, like Fleming Rutledge, whose quote heads this blog, what is so important about the season of Advent is that “it forces us to look deeply into what is wrong in the world” and, in so doing, hopefully take steps to make things better in the New Year.
Until then, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family all the best on Christmas.
In your service…Christian
