by Father Frank DeSiano, CSP
November 29, 2010

President of the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association

 

As the singing group the Temptations taught us almost three decades ago, imagination has a lot of uses. In this song, imagination leads the singer to think someone is in love with him. And, frankly, most of our imagination revolves around having or doing things that fall outside our everyday scope – a new car, a big promotion, skills like singing or athletics that we lack. We are all, like the famous short story character, Walter Mitty.

How often, though, do we imaging being without something? What a stretch of imagination to think of ourselves like, say, the Haitians after their deadly earthquake; or like someone imprisoned for decades; or someone losing health in a life-threatening way! Yet imagining our lives with less might be the more important kind of musing-because it might bring us more in touch with the poor, the seriously ill, the deprived.

I have long thought of Advent as a kind of “imagining without.” We believers, many of whom have grown up knowing the graces of Jesus, imagine ourselves during these four weeks before Christmas as if we were waiting for him, longing for him, in need of him. “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” we sing, as if Emmanuel has not already come.

Advent, then, with this kind of “imaging without,” can stretch us in two important directions. First, it can bring us in a new way to realize our absolute need for Jesus Christ in our own lives and to see more clearly the ways we take the presence of Christ for granted as we live out discipleship. What if we did not have Christ? What would be unhealed, unforgiven, unsaved in our own lives?

Secondly, it can bring us in touch with the millions of people who actually live without involvement with Christ, particularly religious seekers and Catholics who have given up the practice of their faith. During Advent, we can take on their lives through our imaginative prayer. We can put ourselves in their place. And, doing so, we can begin to pray more effectively for the advent, the coming of Jesus Christ, more clearly to them. Maybe we can “imagine” others to healing and salvation.

Doing this might lead us, during Advent, to reach out to another and, like a Bethlehem star, help guide a seeker to the light of Christ.