Advent literally meaning “coming” is not a time of waiting for the coming of the Christ Child—that already happened more than 2,000 years ago. It is, rather, a time when we break our normal routine and move into heightened alert to perceive more intensely the ways of Emmanuel, “God with us.” But look at us for whom waiting is very difficult. We try to eliminate it as much as possible with fast food, express lines and ever speedier Internet connections. We are impatient; we are not ready for something worthier than fast and cheap things. As I think of a worthy waiting, a beautiful image comes up to my mind. Let me admit first that I am not able to conceive a baby. Physically I don’t have a womb where new life grows and where I myself was secure for nine months. It is an amazing gift only to women who are directly connected and experience a beat of a little heart and an infant’s moving, kicking and playing around. During pregnancy, we see a mother who is a most caring and loving woman in the world, breathing, growing with an infant and ever longing for the new life.
For this Advent, I want to suggest all of us to be spiritually pregnant with our first baby. We will surely be excited as well as trembling with this new life and our life will be quite different because of the pregnancy. This new baby will be called Emmanuel as always “God with us.” We will be a father or a mother for God and our each breathing will be a sign of God with us; we will be mindful of the new life in every way. Every time we breathe, we take a breath for Emmanuel. We become a living Mary who is always mindful of God’s Word by taking it to her heart and contemplate it.
If we go back to our daily life, the successive Mondays, aren’t there something different after our enlightenment of the spiritual pregnancy of God? The days will be the same, but the person who lives in the days is not the same. When the person is aware of his/her breathing with pregnancy, the person is mindful that the sky is blue; the birds’ song is beautiful. And the person is able to become an unworthy manger where the Lord will be placed in four weeks. Let’s start Advent, being mindful of our pregnancy, carrying the fetus of the Son of God everywhere and understanding that being pregnant wouldn’t be easy, but it would be quite worthwhile as the day of new life comes. Let’s greet one another, acknowledging a Christ within the other person, “A lotus for you, a Christ to be!”