Readings: Christmas Weekday | USCCB 

With Advent we had days of preparation and with Christmas the arrival of a Savior in the form of a poor child. And yet, the world can feel unchanged even if we have been moved by the season personally. Even with the energy of all the resolutions of the new year in the air, we face so many global trials: 

• Wars that feel increasingly intractable 
• Throngs of displaced people seeking refuge (much like the holy family) 
• The hopelessness of addiction in our communities 
• Environmental degradation and a warming planet 
• A feeling that our politics are too far apart to ever be reconciled 

This names only a few. 

Maybe today’s Gospel invites us to connect with that preparation and that miracle…together. We are “children of God”, but where are we to find hope in this very broken world? Perhaps, with one another. 

John the Baptist exclaims “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” As I read this very familiar encounter, I noticed my tendency (maybe you share it) to focus on the spiritual goodies of “my sin in this world” rather than “the sin of the world”. It takes on a different meaning for me, when I relate it to the collective (the we). One that still asks me to heed the call to faith (and its challenges), but one that helps me see the bigness of God’s Love for us as Children of God. A love so big that “what shall be, has not yet been revealed”. 

With Christ, we, the collective, the world, the cosmos – can have collective healing and collective hope. We can be reconciled to one another. We can heal the Earth. We can turn in awe and wonder at the seeming infinitude of the universe. In awe of the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world. Have hope! What WE shall be, has not yet been revealed. 

Andrew Puroway, Adjunct Faculty College of Arts and Sciences 

The Campus Ministry Seasonal Reflections are offered during the liturgical seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter. We bring a variety of voices from Students, Faculty and Staff. The perspectives expressed in these reflections are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Campus Ministry.