By Sr. Doreen, SSJD
“Since before time began no one has ever imagined, no ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you. You meet those who happily do what is right, who keep a good memory of the way you work. But how angry you have been with us. We have sinned, is there any hope for us?
“His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him… the starving poor sat down to a banquet, the callous rich were left out in the cold…” (Luke 1) (Message translations)
“The highway of reversal” refers to a reversible lane system, which allows traffic to flow in different directions at different times of the day to increase capacity during peak hours. These systems are managed with overhead signs that indicate the current direction of travel. In some of our big and busy cities, we can find one of the main busy throughfares with a center lane marked with a red or green light – indicating which direction the traffic is to move. This is distinct from a contraflow system, which is a temporary strategy used during specific events, emergencies, or accidents to reverse the direction of traffic in a lane.
(I include this as a technical definition of a reversal highway – one that we see, as said, in big cities)
However, I believe there are times in life when we need to ponder the possibility of needing a highway of reversal – travelling a highway where we head not just in one direction, but at times find ourselves needing to head in another direction in order to arrive where we want to go. This seems to me to be one of the messages of Advent: the longing for some reversal of our circumstances.
As I pondered the readings there was a mix of possible praise and real lament, a mixture of what most of us can identify in our own life and can see in the life of the communities and world around us. We can find ourselves travelling along in creative growth and joy, and we can also find ourselves travelling with great difficulty through times of sorrow, pain, or hard circumstances. There have been times when I have found myself saying ‘I never expected life to hurt so much’ during sickness, disappointment, hurt feelings, frustration … trouble comes in so many forms to cause us pain. We could each name our own circumstances that cause us both great joy and great pain. For me and for you, this highway of reversal becomes a very important ‘gift challenge’ in our journey through life, and in our Advent journey to Christmas.
I found myself slowly reading Isaiah 63:7 – 64:12 as it seemed to be a whole argument that I might have with God, an argument where I might hope to convince God to reverse the direction in which things were heading in whatever circumstance of pain, I found myself in! And at the same time realizing that God’s invitation was to go through that circumstance of pain, to choose not to be imprisoned in my own pain but to get up and go on – and find new meaning in life.
It seemed to me that there was on this Advent journey on a highway of reversal something of a paradox that is holding out a challenging gift to us. Going down a straight road is easy; it doesn’t take you off in strange directions and it leads to the place you expect to go. Those times in our lives when we experience this are indeed times of possible praise – safe, predictable, comfortable and perhaps unfortunately complacent. Those times in our lives when we experience going down the crooked, dangerous, unpredictable roads often lead us to places we never knew existed! It takes a tremendous amount of courage and wisdom, lament and pleading, to navigate these times and in doing so inevitably find ourselves led to new discoveries and surprises: we learn something new, something precious and strong about ourselves and our relationship with ourselves, others and God. Perhaps this takes time, a slow kind of travel, one that brings us gradually to a closer focus of God, of ourselves, and of others.
On this highway of reversal during Advent we are also called to ponder that great reversal that God has as a plan for the kingdom of God on earth: the redemption of the oppressed and the humbling of the powerful – this is highlighted for me each day as we sing the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, during evensong. There is an inner sense and also an outer sense that the things we and the world use as markers of greatness and power – wealth, influence, acclaim, fame are not the things that matter in life. It is not such things as success, popular acceptance, and achievement but a reversal of all these things built on love, on how we invest ourselves in the ways of service, humility, compassion, acts of kindness. On this highway of reversal, I share a song that highlights for me that highway of reversal – it is an Advent Highway – be prepared!
Star-Child, earth-child, go between of God, love Child, Christ Child, heaven’s lightning rod:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Street child, beat child, no place left to go, hurt child, used child no one wants to know:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Grown child, old child, memory full of years, sad child, lost child, story told in tears:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Spared child, spoiled child, having, wanting more, wise child, faith child knowing joy in store:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
Hope-for-peace Child, God’s stupendous sign, down-to-earth Child, Star of stars that shine:
This year, this year let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.
(from GATHER hymn book #449)