"Advent is the time for rousing. We are shaken to the very depths, so that we may wake up to the truth of ourselves. The primary condition for a fruitful and rewarding Advent is renunciation and surrender. We must let go of all our mistaken dreams, our conceited poses and arrogant gestures, all the pretenses with which we hope to deceive ourselves and others. If we fail to do this, stark reality may take hold of us and rouse us forcibly in ways that will entail both anxiety and suffering." Fr. Alfred Delp, S.J.

I have many Advent and Christmas planning resources at my fingertips which I have, of course, been poring over these last few weeks. As my colleagues and I prepare worship for the four Sundays in Advent and for Christmas eve, we are always looking for the 'perfect' words, the 'best' music to create an environment in which people will encounter the Holy. And so we look through book after book, have many conversations, write our own words and borrow those of others.

In one of those searches I found these words of the Jesuit priest Alfred Delp, a priest best known perhaps for his resistance to the Nazi regime. His words do not conjure up the picture we, particularly Americans, paint for these days leading up to Christmas. These days in which we are told to 'wait', 'prepare','listen', 'hope'. And yet the beginning of the scriptures of Advent are quite forceful as John the Baptist rails against the desert and the people to get a grip….God is coming….God is here. We like to gloss over the 'rousing' and go straight to the soft-lighted peacefulness of the candlelight of Christmas Eve.

And yet the story of Advent urges us to be awake to the truth of the Holy in our midst. It also challenges us to look for those places where the Light of the World is being snuffed out. It is easy to look outside ourselves to all those places where God's presence is only known in shadow. It is not so easy to look at our own inner life for what needs rousing, what needs waking up. It is not so easy to surrender to the Light that lives within each of us, that light which might wake us up more fully to what the call is on our lives.

The call of Advent is to stay awake, not only to the glimpses of the Holy outside us, but to the glimmers of the Holy within us. The call of Advent is that God wants to be born, not only in a stable 2000 years ago, but within each of us. The call of Advent is the voice telling each of us to wake up to our true selves. Because the world needs us. Because this is who we were meant to be.The world needs the light that resides within each of us for its healing, for its hope, for its Christmas.

It is time to be roused!