Some of the statements from Isaiah in the first reading can seem pretty confounding. From exile, Isaiah writes that God forms both light and darkness, well-being, and woe. That brings to mind the question: why do bad things happen to good people? This Advent is probably unlike any other that most of us have experienced. With the pandemic, government shutdowns, and unrest; what is usually just a season of baking cookies and decorating trees, has become much more intense.
A teacher from a Religious Education class asked me to explain to the kids why God made terrible things. If God is love and light, and during Advent, we are preparing our hearts to encounter Him anew, how then do we explain the more challenging parts of life? Light, love, health, and comfort; well, those are easy enough to explain. The darker side of things, though: pain, disease, discomfort, woe. An excellent concrete answer is a Catholic response of “it’s a mystery.” It is. It’s beyond our comprehension.
There is an example, though, that helps us to begin to wrestle with it. That’s the example of light itself. The scriptures remind us that God is light. God is everything good. So I ask them to name good things. We list those on the board. Love. Puppies. Health. Candy. Fresh baked cookies. Then I ask them to help simplify that into what it is they like about those things.
Comfort, Joy, Happiness, Excitement.
Then I ask them to give me the opposites of those words. Comfort becomes discomfort. Joy becomes despair. Happiness becomes sorrow. Excitement is now boredom. Then comes the candle. Placing a lit candle on the table with an object near it, I challenge them to move the shadow by touching neither the item nor the candle. That leaves only touching the shadow. Of course, we can’t do it. That’s because shadows aren’t really there, they are an absence of light.
That’s how we can understand part of the mystery. God is everything good and he wants good for us. He wants to give us comfort, joy, health, and love. Our fallen nature is like the object that creates the shadow. All of those negative words that were on the board are things that exist when God is not allowed to be present; when the presence of God is blocked by something. Simply put: bad things exist because good exists and because people and things can block the ‘light’. It’s when we get in the way that shadows form because the light itself will never cast a shadow. When our society, economic structure, way of eating, or past hurts keep us from allowing God to work in our lives that’s when shadows are most present.
It’s still not a perfect example because some very Godly people out there get sick. In today’s readings though, God challenges us to ask ourselves: are we living our lives in a way that allows God’s light to shine into every situation, or are we creating a shadow? Advent is about removing anything blocking God’s light from our hearts so that He can be more fully a part of our lives. Even in the times that are hard, the times when we struggle. When shadows seem to be all we see, that’s when we need to look for the light the most. It’s always right where we left it.
A homily for Wednesday in the 3rd Week of Advent: 12/16/2020