Advent 2019
Did the main participants fall into a spiritual depression after the birth in Bethlehem? Not at all! The experiences of those days and nights continued to move them and they lived on for months and years. And what about us? Does Christmas live on in us into a new year? We have reached the peak of the Christmas celebrations 2019! Some events are already behind us; others we still have ahead of us. We merrily continue to celebrate with relatives, friends and loved ones. This is every year…
John the Baptist makes it clear that apart from the usual Christmas preparations, there are a few other things that are important in view of the coming Lord: As a forerunner of Jesus, he calls for repentance and conversion. He proclaims the Saviour and shows that the way to the glory of God leads through him, the crucified Christ. As an evangelist, he does not cuddle, but speaks plainly and radically rejects any form of pious hypocrisy. Advent, this time before Christmas, is for…
A prison cell is a good comparison for the Advent situation. The door is locked and can only be opened from the outside. In Jesus, God came to our world as a human being to free us from our prisons. The only appropriate response to God’s grace, is Mary’s when she says: «I am the servant of the Lord and bow to his will.» On 21 November 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from Nazi prison to his friend Eberhard Bethge: «Such a…
