I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel overwhelmed with fear and sadness.  I see so much hatred around me.  I worry about where it is going.  Have we become blind to the fact that there is another way? 

In his Advent hymn, “Awake! Awake and Greet the New Morn,” Marty Haugen talks about this very thing.  Apparently, it’s not unique to us in this place and time.  The words that follow are stanza two.

“To us, to all, in sorrow and fear,
Emmanuel comes a singing,
his humble song is quiet and near,
yet fills the earth with its ringing,

music to heal the broken soul
and hymns of loving kindness,
the thunder of his anthems roll
to shatter all hatred and blindness.”*

We await the coming of Emmanuel.  We await the humble song of his birth!  Yes, it is indeed “music to heal the broken soul.”   But even more powerful is the thought that He comes to “shatter all hatred and blindness.”  Wow! 

A quote attributed to Oscar Wilde says, “Acknowledging love’s and hatred’s blindness can foster compassion, reduce prejudice, and open paths to maturity, where affection and aversion are held with gentler, more discerning awareness.”**    I think that Oscar Wilde would quite agree with Marty Haugen that shattering hatred would lead to a gentler life of loving kindness. 

Christ walks beside us and in us as we walk through this Advent season.  Let’s pray that we will be more aware of his unconditional love, and that we will allow it to shatter the hatred within us.

Judy

* Stanza 2, Awake! Awake, and Greet the New Morn
Text and music Marty Haugen

**This quote is written / told by Oscar Wilde between October 16, 1854 and November 30, 1900.