Let go of the things of this world

Today we celebrate Saturday of the second week in Advent, but it’s also the feast day of the great Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. St. John taught that, although we find ourselves in the midst of a good and beautiful world, we must take care not to become lost in worldly things. St. John reminds us that our ultimate calling, the true purpose for which we were created, is to become one with God. And until we can free our soul from its attachment to the things of this world, we can’t truly be free to join in communion with God

But that’s really hard to do - it involves a kind of purification of our soul - and it can be spiritually painful. But until we do we may struggle against a dryness in our prayer life and a sense of separation from God.

The problem with being lost in pursuit of worldly pleasures is that we may well be oblivious to the presence of Christ in our daily lives. That’s the message we hear in today’s Gospel. The world - including the disciples - did not realize that the “new Elijah” - in the person of John the Baptist - was already in their midst, calling the people to prepare the way of the Lord. Consequently they also didn’t realize that the long-awaited Messiah was also among them because he didn’t look like what they expected him to be.

Are we any better? How often do we overlook Christ in our midst, because he doesn’t present Himself as we expect him to. Matthew 25 lays it out pretty well: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” But that’s not how we expect Christ to come to us, either in person or in our prayer life.

You may have heard the story of how hunters catch monkeys. They cut a small hole in a coconut, just large enough for the monkey to put its hand in, and fill the coconut with a sweet treat and leave it tied under a tree. The monkey smells the treat, squeezes its hand into the coconut, grab the treat in its paw and then finds that its fist won’t come through the hole. The monkey will not let go of the treat in its fist though – it holds itself prisoner. And while it sits there desperately grasping its treat, the hunter comes and snatches it up. All that monkey has to do is let go of the treat, pull its hand from the coconut, and run for freedom. But they just can’t let go.

There’s a message in that for us. Until we can truly let go of the things of this world, we cannot be free to fully embrace the blessings and grace of Christ’s presence in our lives. Especially during this season of Advent, this time of preparation for the Messiah, we need to lift our eyes above our world focus to make room for Jesus Christ to come into our hearts.