Asking “But Why?” in the Advent

Luke 1:41-45

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Elizabeth asks: “why has this happened to me?” Why is always the most difficult question. Elizabeth has had a spiritual experience, a moment of spiritual awakening. But why?

In this season of Advent, when things seem so dark and yet we anticipate the coming of the light, so much seems to have happened to us. But why?

The answer to why causes us to engage in impossible speculations: what is my motivation, what is the motivation of another, what is the motivation of the divine? It is much easier to answer the how. We can study and then explain how a virus can cause a pandemic and how the need to manage that pandemic can lead to so much disruption. But why?

It is the obvious question for every child: but why, Daddy, why? But why Mommy, why? The answers are never as easy as the questions.

Some of us will continue to search for the scientific explanation, but in truth science is the answer to the question of how. Theologically, some will attribute the divine intent while others will assign such questions to the divine mystery: the unknowable answers.

When we start to ascribe every blessing to God’s will then it becomes very challenging when bad things happen. Are these also God’s will? God’s punishment? Or is God simply present, a trillion steps of creative evolution removed from cause and effect and at this point simply present with us in the experience of blessings and challenges? A loving God who offers us free will to thrive and persist or wither and suffer – but loving us throughout our choices no matter the course?

I choose to understand God as creative source and loving presence. I understand God’s will as a guiding light not a straightjacket to free-will or a system of rewards and punishments. God’s will is a way of life, the ever present opportunity to choose the way of love and peace. This is where I find joy and hope in all of creation and all of life’s journey. Understanding Jesus as a the light of the world that brings us into the way is a way of living harmoniously and choosing God’s will and way. In this understanding I find the miracle of Christ’s birth and the promise of Christ’s peace, this miraculous and mysterious “why”, a heavenly presence worth anticipating and experiencing in Advent again and again.  

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