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Editorial: Are you ready? God is being born again
Iraqi refugees who fled violence in Mosul ride in a pickup truck Oct. 24 as they arrive in Aleppo, Syria. (CNS/Khalil Ashawi, Reuters)
EDITORIAL
By NCR Editorial Staff | Nov. 19, 2016
No birth happens suddenly, but only after a necessary time of gestation and gradual preparation. A pregnancy begins to "show" at a certain stage, and anticipation builds in the parents and family toward the day when the baby will arrive. Who will this new person be? What will the impact of this life have on us and on the world? Something wonderful is about to happen, but it requires great labor and careful attention, for once new life is in motion, it brings uncertainty and risk. New life alters the future in ways we cannot predict or control.
Advent, which begins Nov. 27, is the time when God begins to show more prominently, stirring us to welcome the promise of Christmas. We are wise to stop everything to celebrate the Incarnation, as both a past miracle and a timeless mystery. God is in the world now as the body of the Risen Christ, whose redemptive presence and activity are the life we share and the only purpose of the church. We say we believe that God is continually being conceived and born in us for the transformation of the world. We must live it to know the truth of it.
The year ending, declared by Pope Francis an extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, has added urgency to internal church reform, pastoral outreach and the prophetic cry for economic and environmental change as a matter of the survival of the planet and the common good of humanity. The symbolic doors of mercy, unsealed and opened in Rome and in dioceses and parishes around the globe have urged conversion and renewal while there is still time.
Even though the Holy Year of Mercy formally ends Nov. 20, the essential practice of mercy and forgiveness continue because they are the essence of the Gospel and every disciple's way of life. The divine face of mercy revealed by Jesus comes to stay in our lives, entering through the door of our hearts only to lead us out again to share God's unconditional love.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/spirituality/editorial-are-you-ready-god-being-born-again