Alfred Delp (1907-1945) was a German pastor, an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime who was tortured, imprisoned, and executed. While in prison, Father Delp wrote meditations on Advent, texts that were smuggled out and shared among friends and parishioners.
The grave danger of wartime, that sense that the "end" was imminent -- the end of his own life, the lives of loved ones, the longed for end of the war -- heightened the urgency of his Advent message: "Because we mean so much to God, no external distress can rob us of this ultimate consolation."
Delp writes,“We should not come to Christmas as if we do not live in the year 1942. The year must be redeemed along with everything else." How may you and I prepare for Christmas in our own difficult year: 2020? Can we turn our aching, anxious hearts toward the One who comes?
Hear Alfred Delp's words today: Space is still filled with the noise of destruction and annihilation, the shouts of self-assurance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and helplessness. But just beyond the horizons the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on us the first mild light of the radiant fulfillment to come.
It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold. But it is happening. This is today. And tomorrow the angels will tell what has happened with loud rejoicing voices, and we shall know it and be glad...
“It was not suddenly and unannounced that Jesus came into the world. He came into a world that had been prepared for him. The whole Old Testament is the story of a special preparation…Only when all was ready, only in the fullness of his time, did Jesus come.” (Phillips Brooks, 1835-1893)
"Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for your only Son. By his coming give us strength in our conflicts and shed light on our path through the darkness of this world."
Face to face with our limits,
Blinking before the frightful
Stare of our frailty,
Promise rises
Like a posse of clever maids
Who do not fear the dark
Because their readiness
Lights the search.
Their oil
Becomes the measure of their love,
Their ability to wait—
An indication of their
Capacity to trust and take a chance.
Without the caution or predictability
Of knowing day or hour,
They fall back on that only
Of which they can be sure:
Love precedes them,
Before it
No door will ever close.
(Thomas J. O’Gorman)
Keep your lamp trimmed and a-burning,
Keep your lamp trimmed and a-burning,
Keep your lamp trimmed and a-burning,
Oh, see what the Lord has done.
Sister don't get worried, for the work is almost done.
Brother don't get worried, for the work is almost done.
Elder don't get worried, for the work is almost done.
Heaven's journey, is almost over, see what the Lord has done.
(Blind Willie Johnson,1897-1945)
Therefore, deep down, we are the people who are comforted and we are the last refuge for the homeless people who do not know anything about the Lord anymore. May we know about the indisputable fact of this Child and not let ourselves be disconcerted, not even by our own great un-freedom.
"The goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior is appearing." May we impart that goodness. May we attend to humanity again, and witness to the Lordship of God again, and know of His grace and mercy, and have gentle hands for other people again. (Alfred Delp)