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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1987)
PAGE 5 — The Georgia Bulletin, November 26, 1987 Father Edmund, O.C. S.O. What Is Advent? Advent begins this year on Saturday eve ning, Nov. 28. What is Advent? For many it is a time to prepare for Christmas: shopping, mailing, baking, visiting. Stores, mailbags, airports and highways will be more crowded than usual. Liturgically-minded people will see Ad vent as a time to ponder again the two-fold coming of Christ, looking forward to his future coming in glory at the end of time, and backward nearly 20 centuries ago when Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin. Churches, it is hoped, will be more crowded too during this season, more people at Mass, especially on weekdays. The forward-backward view of Advent may be illustrated somewhat by two major events that took place in America in recent months: the visit of Pope John Paul It, look ed forward to by preparing streets, stadium, silverdome and Superdome. The other event, celebrated with balloons, bugles, bright lights and the ringing of bells, was the bicentennial observance of the signing of the United States Constitution, a past ac complishment, the blessings of which we still enjoy today. The gospels of the first two Sundays of Advent continue the spirit of the final weeks of the church year, looking forward to the coming of the Savior at the end of time. From Dec. 17 on we shift our attention to his first coming, to the stable of Bethlehem, giving thanks to the Father for sharing with us his Son. Forward — backward! Where does that situate us today? Between Christ yet-to-come and Christ already-come, we have him among us here and now by what St. Bernard of Clairvaux calls the ‘ Sacrament of Advent,' that mysterious presence of God (Christ) in our world. Bernard sees Christ here with us in our present world as ‘ Savior.” He writes: “Advent does not merely commemorate the incarnation as a historical event, nor is it just a devotional preparation for the feast of Christmas, nor as an anticipation of the last judgment. It is above all the sacrament of the presence of God in the world and in time, of his incarnate Word, in our own lives as our Savior.” Bernard goes on to say that “It is necessary that we find Christ the Savior here and now among us.” Why? “Because of our misery and helplessness. We are deceived in our judgments of good and evil, our attempts to do good fail and lead to nothing, we do not succeed in our efforts to resist evil. The presence of Christ in us over comes all these obstacles." Christ will come, Christ has come and is with us here and now. “And know that I am with you always untii the end of the world.” (Mt. 28:20b) Father Eamund is a monk at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers. Father John Dietzen A Born-Again Friend Q. ! believe I am a reasonably tolerant person about other people's faith and beliefs. I am getting a quite different at titude from my friend who says he is a born-again Christian. By this he means he was born again spiritually, not by bap tism as I understand it. Basically he is stating that you cannot be born again through our “man-made” institutions of baptism and confir mation. He says that only the Holy Spirit chooses the time and place for someone being born again. Could you enlighten me in a way to deal with this phenomenon? Perhaps since my friend refuses to be a member of an organized church, he has no other way to receive the Holy Spirit. (Pennsylvania) A. This born-again phenomenon has many facets which in terweave. We have centuries-old historical, theological and biblical background for our traditional Christian practices concerning baptism and confirmation. These are readily available if you wish to research them. I hope, therefore, you will not think I am dodging yourques- tion when I point out again, as I did recently in response to a similar topic, that the real difference between you and your friend is something more basic than specifics about the sacraments and “receiving the Spirit.” It has to do here rather with our understanding of the rela tionship between Jesus and his church from the beginning. According to the Gospel (Matthew 28:20), Jesus promised that until the end of time he would be with his disciples, his community of believers, who were to teach and baptize in his name. We place very strong faith in what we cal! tradition (which simply means those things that are handed down to us) because we believe that Jesus takes his promise very seriously, that he has kept it and keeps it to this day. For this reason above all, we would believe that anyone who says the Christian churches have been all wrong about things like this until now have a lot of explaining to do. This is not to deny that past and present groups who have held such theories have much truth on their side. Question Corner For one thing, they can help all of us keep in mind certain truths about God's action that we can easily let slip. We believe also that the church can grow and develop in its faith. In light of new circumstances and events of history, it can and always will see new things in the Gospel message, which is simply another way of saying it will always come to know Jesus Christ more deeply. We are, after all, not dealing here with fringes of our faith. The sacraments, especially baptism and Eucharist, have roots going back even into the Old Testament. They have been, and still are, held by Christians to be essential and in tegral elements of our life with Christ. If anyone says that the church has been wrong on this im portant point all through the centuries, our response is simp ly that we prefer to believe in Christ and his promise (John 15 and 16) to guide and preserve us in whatever is essential in keeping his church, his community of believers, faithful witnesses to him until the end of the world. (Copyright (c) 1987 by NC News Service) Antoinette Bosco Hard Decisions A woman I worked with a few months ago was really distressed. Her husband was being transferred to another state and she was almost tormented by the thought of how this would disrupt her life. She loved her job and made good money. It had taken her a long time to get where she was, in a solid, decision-making position with the firm and comfortable with her co-workers. Yet now she had to face giving it all up in order to keep her marriage and family intact. Ironically, her husband was not happy about the move either. But he felt he had no choice. His wife insisted he did have a choice. She felt that her job was so good that he could leave his company and look for employment with another company within commuting distance of their present home. Even if he made less money, together they could still have a good income, she reasoned, without the turmoil of making a drastic move and disrupting all of them, including the children who did not want to leave their school and neighborhood friends. This was not the first family I encountered recently with the problem of whether to relocate or stay put and try to redesign the employment picture. In all cases, the major fac tor causing friction was the wife’s employment. it is a new problem. As a real estate professional noted recently, “The working spouse issue is a growing one. Ninety percent of relocated employees are male and more than 50 percent of wives are working women.” This week Homequity Inc., a national relocation manage ment company, published a report showing that more than half the corporate executives and other employees who are offered better, more lucrative jobs to relocate are reluctant to do so. Some are hostile to the suggestion. Others flatly refuse to go. This is different from the past when employees asked to relocate willingly complied and wives, mostly unemployed, understood the need for moving. Then, as now, most relocation offers came with attractive inducements, such as a substantial pay raise and help in find ing a new home. But today “the cost of living difference bothers a lot of people asked to move. A move away is usually a move up, but it often means relocation to a more affluent community where housing and living expenses are higher and the wife’s income possibilities are lower,” says Doug Madeley, Home- quity’s senior vice president for marketing. The Bottom Line “Even though the employer pays for all the moving ex penses and increases the salary, it doesn't make up for the emotional and psychological impact and the loss in total family income,” he says. In the end, my friends moved 1,500 miles away. My co worker has not yet found a comparable job. She’s working as a secretary with a temporary agency. Her son is having a tough time making new friends. Her husband is doing fine with his work, but misses his old buddies at the health club he went to as therapy for his back problems. The one ray of light, she says, is the church. They are getting active in their new parish and that gives them hope of getting comfortable in their new environment. Another couple chose not to relocate due to the wife’s pleading. She’s still happy with her job and home. But he feels resentment over having had to take a job that's a come down. The whole family feels the father’s unhappiness. This problem of whose job is the one to consider when relocation looms is coming up more and more. It is a situa tion that has no easy answer. (Copyright (c) 1987 by NC News Service)
