Introduction by Lee Catoe, Editor of Unbound
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Tolkien was never shy to express the worst in us and yet was so bold to find the perfect mixture of words to illustrate the nuance of both our world and our inner selves. We are indeed within times of peril that spur grief within the human and collective emotion. Surrounded by war, hate, bigotry, death, and disease, it is so easy to either live in the confines of the cynic or the alternative reality of the denier, losing the depth of what it means to live in the “now” and uncontained ways we experience life.
Advent has historically been classified as a time of waiting in our Christian calendar. Waiting for the Christ child to dwell and walk among us. Waiting for a savior to open up the gates of the kindom of heaven so that it may be ushered here on earth. Waiting, looking up to the stars, wondering when will Christ come again to remove us from a world easily fallen into disarray. And yes, Advent could be about all of these things.
And what if Advent was a space we could live in our human emotions that bubble up every holiday season? What if we actually grieved together? What if we actually yelled out to God, “Why?! Oh Lord have you forsaken us?!” What if we stopped pretending that the human experience is constructed into binaries and what if we just felt our feelings? After all, the manifestation of love, the Incarnate, experienced the whirlwind of human emotion.
Love does mingle with grief and I do believe that when we move through our grief that love grows in ways we might not have imaged. Our capacity to see each other grows all the while we learn more and more about ourselves.
Through Light and Shadow: Grief and Lament in a Time of Advent centers the movement toward grief while giving us ways to express our losses, our hurt, our anger, our rage, and our tears. It is my deepest hope that all who journey through this Advent devotional will take time to breathe, to feel, to cry, to laugh, to scream, to wait with purpose knowing that joy, peace, hope and love cannot be defined by anyone but ourselves…
In the chaos of these times, it’s hard to be optimistic about the holidays. With increasing social and political unrest, economic turmoil, war, natural disasters - even the most pious among us struggle for hope. Thankfully, the season of Advent offers us sacred space to confront our doubts and powerlessness. And this passage by the prophet Isaiah reminds us of the power that is within our reach. The prophet’s words all point to a spiritual practice that is sure and immediate, tried and true, a practice that reflects our deepest longing and our greatest hope - that we are not
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To the widow and the widower. To the sad, lonely, depressed. To those grieving, anticipating grief, to those feeling the feelings, unaware that what they are feeling is grief. To those who have lost someone special and precious. To those who are watching their loved ones transition. To those who smile when they really want to cry. To those who will not allow themselves to cry, and to those who cry only where they can’t be seen or their wails heard. To those who have no joy, have distant memories of joy, and can’t even imagine what might bring them
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Christmas has a way of arriving whether we are ready or not. Usually, when we say that, we mean the shopping is unfinished, the house needs attention, or the calendar has become impossible. But there is another kind of unreadiness that cannot be resolved by getting a few more things done. Sometimes Christmas arrives while we are still grieving, still waiting for answers, or still trying to understand how life became so different from what we expected.
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The birth of Christ had been anticipated and foretold before commandments were etched in stone, even before the weight of oppression threatened humanity’s dance at the dawn of liberation. The timeless words of the prophets proclaim the arrival of One whose presence would “defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor” (Psalm 72:4). Amos foretells the restoration of David’s fallen kingdom (Amos 9). Jeremiah weeps over ongoing disobedience, yet prophesies about a “Righteous Branch” from David’s line (Jeremiah 23). Micah proclaims a Ruler to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5),
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