Can we become the way?

In many ways, Advent is about preparing the way of the Lord. We are encouraged to wait, anticipate, listen, and slow down in order to – prepare – the way. Advent is all that. And more.

Perhaps the best way to prepare for God-with-us is becoming God-within-us.

How are we invited to not only prepare but become that which God created in God’s likeness? It is, I think, to trust and choose divine potentiality in ourselves. Broken, sure, but beautiful. Blessed.

People of faith.
Prophets of justice.
Priests of love.

Advent is not only about anticipating the radical kinship of the Prince of Peace. Advent is that. And more.

It’s about becoming, now, the embodiment of his very example. Can we become that way? That alternative, elusive way of nonviolence, radical otherness and loving encounter?

Prepare the way? Yes. Become the way? That’s harder, no doubt. It’s both the call and choice we have this Advent season.

Becoming the way, I’m convinced, isn’t a place we arrive. It’s an unfolding, lifelong journey of grit and grace. Challenge and perseverance. Hope and joy.

Perhaps it can be in this season, however, where the Good News of that path, often begun as voices crying out in desert darkness, yields the light and love of tomorrow.

Can we become the way? I think so. Christ knows we can.