A Starbucks Advent Thought

December 6th, 2013 Posted in writing

This past week I was at Starbucks when it occurred to me that every one of us in that coffee shop shared something in common, for if St. Augustine was right, we all have a longing for God. Whether it is explicit or implicit, articulated or unarticulated, conscious or unconscious, we have a desire for a relationship with God.

There is a paradox in that longing, however, because we Christians believe that God has already come to us and taken up permanent residence in our world and in our history. Jesus, who is truly divine and truly human, has decisively closed the gap between us and God. So, what is that longing for God all about? Hasn’t Christ already provided the answer to that longing?

Yes, but our longing for God remains, not because God isn’t with us but because our relationship with God can always grow deeper and richer. In human relationships, love can grow or can diminish over time, and the same is true for our relationship with God. God is in our lives and our hearts, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t also desire for him to be even closer.

It is this longing, shared by all of us (including all the people at Starbucks that afternoon), which opens us to receive anew the God who is always present. It is this longing which the church celebrates in Advent.

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  2. By jea on Dec 21, 2013

    Wouldn’t be nice for a priest to participate in the birth of a child – this way he can learn about Jesus’s birth in real terms – and also be an example for the endless fathers who “disappear” before their children are born.

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