Videlbina Flores

[Espanol aqui] 

Readings:
Isaiah 35 1-10 
Mathew 11 2-11

Joy is the face of our positive feelings. It is the indicator that yes, positive changes are occurring in our life and in society. It is also the process of moving from suffering to peace, from slavery to freedom.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ADVENT

Advent is the time of awaiting the birth of Jesus. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, this year on November 30th, and ends on December 24th. This tradition that goes back 2,000 years and served to help the faithful, who in their majority where dedicated to agriculture.

A RING OR WREATH decorated with evergreen and candles, was a symbol from northern Europe. Its circle is the universal symbol representing the uninterrupted cycle of the seasons of the year. THE EVERGREEN BRANCHES AND THE LIT CANDLES stand for the presence of life in the midst of the cold and dark winter.

 

RE-INTERPRETATION OCCURS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AS A CHRISTIAN SYMBOL

Others consider that Advent was established during the sixteenth century as a Christian tradition. In Germany the protestant pastor Johon Hinrich Wichern (1808-1881), pioneer in work with the poor of the cities, implemented the use of the advent wreath. As the children asked every day, in 1839 in Wichren School, if Christmas had come, the pastor made a ring out of an old cart wheel and placed upon it 19 small red candles and four tall white candles. One of the 19 candles was lit daily and one large candle each Sunday of advent.

The color of each of the four candles has a specific symbolism. The candle we celebrate with today is pink, which symbolizes joy. Pink is made from a mixing of red and white. Thus joy often comes from a combination of sad situations moving towards positive outcomes.

For example:

In the Gospel of Matthew: John the Baptist wants to know if Jesus is the one who comes to create just changes or if there is someone else yet to come. John, within prison, does not lose hope that the changes will come for the people to live a just and joyful life.

In Psalm 146, of Isaiah: There is a total giving over to prayer and song for all of life because they trust that the God, Yahweh, will liberate the slave, give justice to the oppressed, and food to the hungry.

With the death of Nelson Mandela the people of Africa, and of the whole world, were filled with grief, and all were invited all to take on a greater role, so that one day the people for whom Mandela gave his life will come the fullness of joy. Our President Obama identified with Mandela’s cause of continuing to build the way onward.

There is the joy of the physical freedom of immigrants leaving immigration jails in this country as  the recent case of Francisco, Veronica’s brother makes stand out. This is something that you North Americans do not experience when you visit our countries, because our home is your home.

In my daily life I look into the eyes of my sons and of my students. When they shine it is because they have joy. Every day my pre-K students and I, in the Head Start class in Spanish, greet one another and I tell them this: that I like them to come happy and ready to learn. I tell my younger son Oliver: ”I like to be see you up with the energy of being ready for your day. To Javier I say: “when I see you with enthusiasm I become full of joy to see you as a responsible adult.”

I want to share three events from my own life with you.

  1. After the peace accords in my country, El Salvador, in 1992 Paul and I participated in the grand party celebrating the change from the armed war to peace. Even though we didn’t believe that this was going to be real, it permitted us to live joys, sadness, anxieties of re-encounters with relatives and friendships, and to miss those who were absent in this date of coming together. This joy was historic and unrepeatable.

 

  1. After we arrived to the United States in 1994, when Javier was yet a baby, when December came I felt my disconnection with my family. This is something that I had already lost during the time of war because for me, my family was all of us poor people who suffered. The emptiness in my heart I filled writing cards to every family and special person who I could remember and have the means of  sending to them via air mail. Later I was able to have the money to buy Christmas presents and humanitarian aid and I sent them. Still later I made a calendar with the birthdays of each family member and of certain friends, and I had the dedication of making sure to send each a little present, with no one left out.

 

Something important was that, upon on the night of December 24th Paul and Javier would go to bed but I could not sleep until one in the morning because that is the traditional time of Jesus’ birth, according to the custom in El Salvador and in other countries. At twelve I would go close to our Christmas tree covered with decorations and little toys that were made out of plastic and not of clay as I knew in my childhood. I would sit in silence remembering my whole life and the various ways of surviving Christmas in time of war. In the last 20 minutes before one, and afterwards, I focused on having a mental and emotional connection with my parents and my brothers and sisters who possibly were gathered in our house also waiting for the birth to then sound the clay whistles. This energy was something special for more than three years, and I did not feel the sadness of the distance.

 

  1. An experience of crying out of the depths of joy, and of beauty. It was a crying with dry tears because I felt busy in resolving or seeking help in difficult situations. I cried when I went up in an airplane that took off from and landed on water as I went from a visit to the Island of St. Croix to St. Thomas and return.

Now I live the advent with joy with a sense of family and friendships sharing my delicious Christmas tamales. In El Salvador we are living through a process of political warfare towards the achievement of full life with justice from the poor majority. Here in the United States I have joy because before the poverty and the difficulties there is solidarity present by means of governmental and non-profit organizations for those who need food, housing, and there is the fight for the access of health care for all. There is the great effort that no boy or girl remains without celebrating Christmas without a present. There will always be some families that don’t enter into this joy but the ongoing care is what counts.

To end, I offer up to you this dance dedicated to joy. (A Salvadoran folk dance to the music of the popular hymn, “Vienen con Alegria,” “Entering in with Joy.”