Brush off those memories of college and young adult days. What things did you do, or think, or say, that make you wince today? Think back just three months ago… I bet you’ll find a few things for which you’d like to call a mulligan (or maybe you already have done that, through the blessed sacrament of Confession). Even in business, how many times have you wished you knew then what you know now?! The truth is, we are human, not angels. We live in the physical world; soul AND body. It’s a precarious path we tread, every minute of our lives, and yet we take so much for granted. But two realities put the matter into sharp perspective: (1) the recent, devastating Oakland warehouse fire that killed more than 36 young adults—now in international headlines, and (2) a Second Sunday in Advent sermon on the Last Things—death, judgement, heaven and hell.
Each day you and I take for granted the sun will come up tomorrow. We take for granted that people we love will be there tomorrow. We take for granted that the familiar roads we travel, the habits we do daily without thinking, will give us the same results tomorrow that they delivered today. Living would be impossible without those assumptions… yet we really never know, especially about those things that involve human habits and choices.
Advent, that season of preparing for Christ’s history-transforming entrance into our physical world, our fresh start of the Liturgical Year, beckons us to think seriously about our assumptions, habits, loved ones. Time to take serious inventory, and to make even just one significant change so that every aspect of our future and our relationships will be better aligned to our highest call: To know, love and serve God in this life, in order to be happy with Him in the next.
The recent, horrific tragedy in Oakland—the unintended consequence of combined years and weeks of many unexamined or postponed small choices and habits and assumptions—brings the call of Advent, of preparing for our Infant King by re-evaluating our own blind spots and habitual choices, into sharp relief.
Learn the latest about the Oakland Fire, an excellent article: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/oakland-warehouse-fire-before-after-photos-show-scale-destruction-1594934
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Karen A. Walker is executive publisher of the Catholic Business Journal.