Saturday of the Second Week of Advent

The Easter Window
at St Anthony Church,
Angola Indiana

Elijah will indeed come and restore all things.

Despite apocalyptic prophecies to the contrary, the Roman Catholic Church does not expect any fulfillment of God’s ultimate plans in this world. The day of peace, prosperity and contentment will come only with Jesus’ second coming.

Communism promised a future age of peace on earth when everyone would have a job and sufficient wealth, and no one would have too much. It could never happen and the attempt only made matters worse. Theirs was a house built on sand.

Occasionally capitalism has offered a similar dream, when there would be a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage. In the United States, some people believe in “utopian individualism:” if I do my thing and you do your thing and everyone does what he or she wants to do, no one will have to do anything they don’t want to do! And everyone will be happy. As if....

Nostalgia – another kind of utopianism – often searches for Shangri-La in the past.  “Once upon a time,” they would have us believe, “people lived naturally. They lived by their instincts and folk wisdom. They didn’t waste or misuse the earth, and they treated their children with affection.” Often in these legends the Fall arrived with the Christian missionaries.

But there never was and never will be a perfect nation, society or culture on earth. Whether it’s an American utopian society or an isolated island kingdom in the South Pacific, there are threats, danger and violence.

Occasionally, it's true, some societies have enjoyed a brief hiatus when some particular vice was less common. I have heard that Victorian England, despite its savage racism in its far-flung empire, enjoyed secure and faithful marriages. If there were red-light districts in the major cities they were contained and relatively small.

But every age and every culture suffers violence. There were no good old days, nor are they yet to come.

But! Nevertheless! The prophets insist it doesn’t have to be that way! We have choices. We can do the right thing. Elijah returns periodically to remind us of the Enormity of our sin and the opportunity to turn back to God.

In today’s gospel, the disciples realized Jesus’ was speaking of John the Baptist when he spoke of Elijah’s coming. He might have been speaking of himself, or Saint Francis of Assisi or Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

Christmas also comes annually to remind us how close the Kingdom of God is. It’s within reach. It will appear when we welcome it with penance, humility and gratitude. We should feel its nearness during this season; it looms over us like an onrushing tsunami. It whispers to us like cat’s feet in the night. Our aching longing for that “Silent Night, Holy Night” is itself a kind of Christmas. We must be still with it and hope.