Memorial of Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
In today’s psalm we are told, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” I hear in this message that we must take all things we do to prayer. In this prayer we must ask the Lord, to be our guide and to show us the way. It is better to live a life following God’s will and living out Jesus’ message than it is to give into the worldly pressures of our society. We are told that those who build their houses on rock – Christ – will survive and those who build their homes on the things of this world – sand – will crumble.
I feel this battle for my focus and my attention often, but never as strongly as in the Advent season. There is a true battle taking place between the sacredness of the season, the preparation for God incarnate as a baby versus society’s materialistic focus on shopping and buying and having all of the right things. It is so easy to get wrapped up into the world of materialism, and it takes deliberate focus and effort to keep our hearts locked on Christ and to stay mindful of Christ’s birth.
One very visible way I see this play out is in the time of preparation of Advent. My husband and I several years ago discussed the secular phenomenon of “elf on the shelf” where you move one of Santa’s elves around every night during December claiming that each night he has gone back to Santa to report back whether the children have been good or bad. I struggle with this tradition for many reasons. I do not fault anyone who does it, but I do feel this charade is too exhausting to maintain for my family. I simply do not have the energy to create a new scenario and story for my elf every night, amidst all of the other demands of parenting and working. But what I do appreciate is the desire to create an anticipation, excitement and reverence as we prepare for Christmas.
Wanting to really get into the idea of waiting and preparation we decided to start our own tradition where my son moved Mary and Joseph around the house every day of Advent as part of their journey to Bethlehem. He loved this and got excited to move Mary and Joseph somewhere new and different. I love that he took ownership of their movement and that he started to think of Mary and Joseph and consequently Jesus as real people. I want my children to have the chance to build their lives on Christ, and that starts at home, in all of the little things we do and the traditions we set. We need to demonstrate to them that faith is what we put our energies and our focus into.
-AJ Grimm