Advent is a time to prepare. For the coming of Jesus Christ, sure, but also for preparing an inordinate amount of food, presents, and for yourself to see all those family members who only seem to be around at Christmas. Jesus is central to Christmas, but the season demands so much more of us these days. By January we are often left stuffed, stressed and ready to go back to our day to day lives.
However, this advent I offer you a challenge. Of course, you should still do all of the celebrating, eating and greeting outlined above, but I challenge you to spend some time looking for Christ.
Not in the cherub like statue that is in your Church’s manger, but in the young people you encounter.
Young people embody the youth of Christ, yet they are often cast aside for not attending mass enough or are blamed for the problems of the day. We tend to only see the worst in young people, recalling examples of failed encounters, or simply passing off working with them as being too hard, and not rewarding enough.
This could be true, but not because young people are young. It’s because building relationships takes time. As a Church, we cannot expect young people to be falling at our feet asking for help and accompaniment. In many cases young people wouldn’t even know where to turn. However, this doesn’t mean we can’t offer our services to young people and work with them in new and engaging ways.
But as a Church, we need to ask ourselves how prepared are we really? We may offer the odd youth mass, and one Sunday each year dedicated to young people, but can we truly say that we have begun preparing to work with young people, in ways that will be fruitful, supportive and inclusive?
Maybe that’s what we should be preparing for this advent? Preparing for the coming of Christ in the form of young people. Pope Francis reminds us that God ‘is at work in the life of each young person’. The question we need to ask ourselves is: are we missing God’s works and wonders by marginalising young people?
This advent don’t miss out on the joys of young people, or the miracles that God works through them, instead start looking at the potential to work with them and be prepared to be taken to new and beautiful places.
By Sophie Aulton (Million Minutes)