Today's word for Advent is Cry. When we think of crying, grief or pain comes to mind. I know mostly I used to think of this word as something I did and then sometimes I was called upon to comfort someone else who was crying. However, during Advent, as we listen to the scriptures, John, son of Zechariah challenges us to a different kind of crying as he acts as a "voice crying in the wilderness calling for repentance." Where are we being called to be a voice for justice? In the Old Testament, scripture tells us, "and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." The beating is not over yet. We need to keep beating and keeping crying out for justice, crying out for the voices of the oppressed and the wounded. God calls us to participate in the cries of everyone's souls and all of creation's groans.
The challenge is to move beyond ourselves even in the midst of our own mourning to a place where the grieving places in our souls become cries in the world for change and an end to injustice.
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