The E-catechism: December 1999
	Advent time Archives	To walk through an imperfect world

		Each month the team working on this catechism presents you with two texts, and we hope that with your help and cooperation they will improve. Any suggestions you may have would be most welcome, as would ideas on subject matter. We look forward to hearing from you. Advent time Liturgy proposes four weeks to prepare for Christmas. Four weeks where two "Advents" of Christ intermix: He has already been there, taking our human condition; He will come back again in full glory. Christians prepare themselves to celebrate the birth of the Child of Bethlehem, but in the mean time they look to the future waiting for the coming again of Christ in glory. This is already there and not yet there. In order to understand the mystery of Noel, the liturgy underlines the action of John the Baptist, sent by God to prepare the way for the Lord. Advent time is a time of desire. Desire always maintained but never satisfied, desire pushes us forward to find in joy the One that we never stop to look for. Where there is desire, there is a way. It is not the kind of worry we have when waiting for a train that does not arrive. It is not the waiting in anguish for a loved one whose life is in danger, neither the waiting full of illusion like those living in a past that is over for good. It is a waiting full of joy like parents expecting the birth of their child. It is like shepherds waiting for the dawn. They know that the night will let the daylight to come up, whatever long it may take. It is the expectation of the lovers of life. They are in a state of greeting. To be alive is to be welcoming. To be opened to the future, to what can happen, to the unexpected, or the unseen. They fit into the adventure of life. But there are those who are disappointed by life, they expect nothing from it. They do not expect anything from themselves, neither from the others, neither from God, the Church or Society. It seems as if their lives have stopped. They are almost dead. When God comes to live with us, there is a new meaning to life; all has to be renewed. It is good news that transforms our lives. The time of advent is the time when one can start again, whatever our age or situation. God turns us towards the future. The time of advent spreads up to all humanity. With hope and faith another world is possible. Our Planet, so damaged by inequalities and violence, can let justice and peace flourish again. There is no fate. When God enters into our history, He opens the future and gives us the passion for what is possible.
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		To walk through an imperfect world Perhaps for each one of us and largely for the public, there exits a need for putting certain persons higher than the common public, out of everyday normality's or failures. A feeling that humanity is able to do more than we are able to achieve ourselves. We would then project unto others, more notorious than we would, an ideal that we would not really be able to reach, but we dream about it. Is not it putting certain persons out of the common status and resigning oneself to live a mediocre life? However, deep in oneself, exists a longing to grow. An aspiration often buried, even suppressed by the living conditions and the lack of real education. We have not been sufficiently helped to be confident in oneself, to come out from oneself to establish with others true and opened relationships, to dare to believe that we can do good. More often, as an ideal, we have been proposed a theoretical perfection out of our reach. Then we became discouraged after having tried hard. The overestimation of the so-called states of perfection's has equally contributed to our disappointment and has sent back to our own reality. On the contrary, Jesus, as shown in the Gospel, was giving confidence to every body" Stand up and walk" he said to the paralytic. We are all, more or less, paralytics in our existence. The ability to deal with imperfection is missing as well for us as for others. It is often in difficult situations, when contradictories calls and needs are interfering, that we have to make a decision. We have the feeling that better is possible to achieve, that we can go forward here and now. Then we don't ask anymore that the others be perfect and without problem. We then discover for us, confident in our capacity, the possibility to assert one's self, to grow spiritually stronger. Getting rid of a crippling culpability, we become able to develop the best of our self. We should not wait perfection for our self or for the others, perfection is never given at the beginning but it is something towards which we continue on our way, helped by the caring for the others and by the confidence given to us. Then a true sense of responsibility spreads out in a coming world, where each one, whatever his/her life and action, has a necessary share to the well being of all.
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		Archives E-catechism November 99, The spiritual life, God is relationship E-catechism October 99, The Jubilee, Pilgrimages E-catechism September 99, Rehabilitate politics, Hope E-catechism July 99, Charity, Miracles E-catechism June 99, Suicide, The ministers in the Church E-catechism May 99, Meeting the agnostic and atheistic world, The mystery of evil E-catechism April 99, The initiation rites, But what is Faith? E-catechism March 99, The sacrament of marriage, Eternal life E-catechism February 99, Sacraments, Time of Lent E-catechism January 99, Eutahanasia, Citizenship E-catechism Dec. 98, Christmass, Racism E-catechism November 98 E-catechism October 98 E-catechism September 98 E-catechism August 98 E-catechism July 98 E-catechism June 98 E-catechism May 98 E-catechism April 98 E-catechism March 98 E-catechism February 98 E-catechism January 98
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