At Christmas mass last night, the priest gave a short sermon about God's longing for us. He meant that God did not want to be alone, he wants to be with man whom he has created. He seeks us. He wants us to accept him into our lives. Somehow, when he said this in just this way, I felt a certain empathy for God. I thought--was it possible for the divine to feel loneliness? Or is loneliness just a human emotion? I don't think so, but how can we ever know? The only thing I know is that when I feel lonely, it has more to do with my spirit and less to do with the corporeal. When I feel lonely, I also long for fellowship but mostly for understanding. In this context, loneliness is associated with the longing to be understood by those around me but also by the divine. It's possible to feel alienated from both at times, thus creating a feeling of loneliness (longing). God also wants man to understand him as much as is humanly possible. So that makes me wonder if our feelings are (a small) part of what defines the 'divine'. Lots of questions, but no answers, as always when it comes to faith and spirituality. We accept a lot on trust, and that's fine. But I like the idea that God can feel loneliness; after all, if he created all things, then he understands loneliness, and he understands that loneliness is part of the human condition.
I like the priest who celebrated mass last night because he seems to be a peaceful, non-combative soul, not aggressive in speech or manner. He does not attack his congregation with fire-and-brimstone sermons, but engages them in a kind way with sermons that speak of the power of love (agape). I found myself thinking of Pope Francis, who seems to be made of the same cloth. Francis recently exhorted priests to shorten their sermons, which is wonderful advice, especially for priests who insist on just repeating the words of the gospels and not offering any reflections on the relevance of the gospel words. We don't need the gospel words reiterated verbatim; we're perfectly capable of understanding the words. I want a reflective approach to sermons, or you can mostly skip them in my opinion. In the world we live in now, we need more priests who are willing to truly reflect on the words of the gospels and offer advice on how to live with faith in a world such as ours.
I wrote to a friend of mine recently who is going through a tough time that having hope for change, hope that things can get better, is the essence of our faith. A message of redemption--that it's never too late to change the path we're on or to ask for forgiveness or to make amends. That is the message of Easter but also of Christmas. We wait during Advent for the birth of a being who was sent to us by God. We open our hearts to this baby in the hope that we will be blessed and transformed. Babies and small children can do that to you--open your heart and transform your spirit. No wonder that God decided that Christ would start life as a baby. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. But in order to be transformed, we need to accept ourselves for who we are with all our faults and peccadilloes and to ask God to enter our lives. Sounds easy, but for many people, it's not. But by accepting him into our lives, the loneliness associated with the longing to be understood can lessen.
