Our modern American culture seems to be drifting more and more into “rampant individualism” and, more and more, we want to “privatize” everything. One of the biggest risks in this is that it spills over into church! Before long, we start to think of “my Mass” and “my prayers,” with little concern for the common good. That which is good for others (or for all of us) easily becomes secondary to “my needs” and “my wants,” never mind what it might mean to anyone (or everyone) else.
The problem is expressed most vividly in the possessive pronoun “my.” Not only is it possessive, it is “singular,” and therein lies the issue. But Advent is purposely “counter-cultural” and it urges us to think about such things in new ways.
St. John the Baptist, for example, (in Luke 3, 1-6) presents a task for the People of God. It is a corporate demand that he makes, not an individual command. In the original language of the Gospel text, he uses a verb in the second person plural. Southerners would get it right away (if the translator was from the South) because St. John would be saying: “Y’all need to change!” So, what he demands is not the work of someone in particular, but a task for us all together. He urges us to think and behave in new ways, in life-giving ways. And he adds that, by our response, we, together as Church, can witness more actively and effectively to the glory of God’s presence among us.
St. John is really saying that a different way of living and experiencing “Church” is possible. And this is why the Eucharist is the center of our lives – a Eucharist that is not “my” private Communion experience, but “our” bonding and “our” fellowship with everyone around us. The Communion we experience is not just between “me” and Jesus, but a Communion of Saints … the ones who have gone before us and the ones who sit next to us in the pews!
