Advent invites us to make space to embrace the liminal space where we celebrate the coming of Jesus while experiencing a reality that feels incredibly distant from Jesus’ Kingdom. It is a space of sacred longing.
This second week of advent, our community leans into our longings for healing. In this post, Chasing Justice podcast producer and spiritual director, Roslyn M. Hernández reflects on the theme of healing.
Join along with us each day of Advent, by purchasing our guide, Longing: An Advent Guide for Weary Activists. In this 20-day guide we lean into our longings for liberation, healing, flourishing and beauty. Together, we join a global chorus who proclaims that Creator is not done yet.
We All Need to Heal
What kind of healing are you longing for?
Is it the healing of creation? The balance of mutuality and care amongst all of Creator’s handy work.
Maybe, you long for peace on Earth; a humanitarian healing that includes your culture, community, family or other collective group.
Perhaps the healing you long for is personal, whether it’s emotional, physical, spiritual or relational.
This year, many wounds have been inflicted and continue to be inflicted on creation, our siblings across the world, our communities, our families, and ourselves. Much tension, aggression, injustice, and neglect has been chronic.
We are exhausted, we are wounded, we are ailing, we are in pain. This is the context of our longing for healing.
Learning From Mary’s Longing for Collective Healing
I often think about Mary’s own exhaustion in the face of oppression and the wounds and pain inflicted upon her by the Empire. And I think about her longing for justice and healing.
What did a pregnant, Jewish Palestinian teenager have to live through in order to long for the kind of peace, collective justice, and spiritual healing that inspired her song?
“I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.“
—Luke 1:50 – 53 (MSG)
I imagine Mary singing this song as she felt her belly growing, when she felt her son kick, or when she felt exhaustion, pain, and despair in the face of injustice.
And I imagine the many times Jesus was put to sleep hearing this joyful and raw, wounded and hopeful, longing lullaby. Baby Jesus heard about injustice, oppression, aggression, and pain while being held in the protective and nourishing darkness of his vulnerable mother’s womb. He heard her longing for justice and healing and the knowledge she had that God would see her through.
The Spirit’s Womb Brings Healing
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is Ruach. As opposed to English, where the Holy Spirit is gender neutral(but often implicitly taken to be male), Ruach is feminine. She is the Holy Spirit (or as I prefer, la Espíritu Santa), and among many things, she is a gestating, protecting, midwifing, nurturing, mothering, consoling, healing presence.
You may feel ready to be in the darkness of her protective and healing womb for a while. But, as I think about Dr. Yolanda Pierce’s A Litany for Those not Ready for Healing, I recognize that you or others around you may not feel ready to begin an active healing process.
La Espíritu Santa can hold us all in the safe darkness of her womb, no matter what stage of healing we find ourselves in. She provides space, stillness, rest, and safety for us to feel anger, rage, grief, despair, and all the range of emotions we need to feel in the face of injustice.
We feel those emotions and long for healing because La Espíritu Santa’s lullaby of healing justice is imprinted in every cell of our bodies. She has carried us before and will continue to carry us, time and time again, whenever we need her. She holds us in the darkness and safety of her womb, knitting us together, tending to our pain, and mending the wounds of our body, heart, and soul.
She nurtures us into wounded healers able to recognize the wounds and pain of creation, of humanity, of cultures, communities, and of our siblings. She does this by teaching us to be present to our own wounds and healing as well.
Purchase your copy of Longing: An Advent Guide for Weary Activists($10) and join the Chasing Justice community as we make space for the reality of this promise, experience it daily and join God in making all things new. Want to try it out before you commit? This post is a sample from our Advent Guide.
Roslyn M Hernández creates resources for the spiritual formation and empowerment of emerging generations through her work as Project Manager at the Fuller Youth Institute and Podcast Producer at Chasing Justice. As a Contributor at Think Christian, her thought-provoking articles and conversations bridge the gap between faith and pop culture. Roslyn is also a Spiritual Director, Public Theologian, and Podcaster providing space for Indigenizing, holy listening, discernment, and healing.
The views and opinions expressed on the Chasing Justice Blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Chasing Justice. Any content provided by our bloggers or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.
