{"id":4119,"date":"2013-12-06T10:37:59","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T16:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=4119"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:51:09","slug":"street-violence-and-holy-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2013\/12\/06\/street-violence-and-holy-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Street violence and holy darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This past Monday\u00a0one of my former students was <a title=\"&quot;2 dead, 6 wounded across city&quot; Chicago Tribune\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/local\/breaking\/chi-two-shot-in-edgewater-beach-20131202,0,1050822.story\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shot and killed on the streets of Chicago.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advent is a time of darkness. \u00a0Sometimes it is obvious to us that there&#8217;s a such thing as holy darkness. And, sometimes the darkness is so cold and heavy that it seems to swallow our hope.<\/p>\n<p>During Advent we are called to open up our lives to the hope that our heartaches make us hungry for. \u00a0No matter how overwhelmed or ugly things may seem, we try to resituate our habits and hearts and create time and spaces so Love may arrive and change us.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Holy Darkness\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0UnaGP3YtuM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>When the darkness that corrupts our anticipation is because of ugly injustice, we can become tempted to turn away from Truth. \u00a0The Truth is that many powerful promises are packed into the waiting within Mary&#8217;s womb.<\/p>\n<p>How do we not give into the temptations so that we remain faithful to our trust in Love? \u00a0The nativity story teaches us that we can only do this through community. \u00a0Together we know that even when life flings the worst at us we need to allow openings as wide as canyons for Christ&#8217;s coming. \u00a0No chaos ought to cause us to close our minds or hearts to the changes that come from Christ&#8217;s presence. \u00a0Really wide openings of anticipation and healing hope emerge when we collect as communities and pray, cry, vigil, and serve together.<\/p>\n<p>Only when we&#8217;re bonded together can\u00a0Christ&#8217;s peace crack through the din of despair. \u00a0That&#8217;s why good Advent activity happens in community.<\/p>\n<p>Mensa&#8217;s death on Monday was another moment of senseless street violence. No one should ever be killed by another person, but when the victim is a young man full of great energy it&#8217;s especially awful. I knew Mensa \u00a0from when I served at the <a title=\"St. Gregory the Great HS closes, ABC, December 2012\" href=\"http:\/\/abclocal.go.com\/wls\/story?id=8915376\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">now-closed St. Gregory the Great High School<\/a> in 2008-2009. Then, he was an ordinary teenage boy who was very kind, smiley, helpful and humble&#8211; certainly someone who could have helped create more peace on the streets.<\/p>\n<p>Before my former colleagues reached me with the news about Mensa,\u00a0another sister and I had spent some of Monday night hanging up Christmas decorations. We giggled, climbed on furniture and hung lights and bows in open spaces around the house as cheery Christmas carols blared from the stereo.\u00a0I had the special privilege of setting up the simple nativity scene on the commode in our dining room. \u00a0The nativity scene is the centerpiece of all our decorations, so I tried to arrange it with great care.<\/p>\n<p>In the creche, Mary, Joseph, an angel, and a couple of animals all are focusing their attention on an empty trough. \u00a0When Baby Jesus shows up on Christmas Eve, he&#8217;ll get tucked right into the little bed that they&#8217;re focused on. \u00a0Although Mary and Joseph are technically just figurines in the scene, their posture is a great reminder for me of how to wait in holy darkness.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4135\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4135\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2013\/12\/06\/street-violence-and-holy-darkness\/imag0204\/#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4135\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4135 \" src=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/imag0204.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Advent Nativity&quot; photo by Julia Walsh FSPA\" width=\"360\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/imag0204.jpg 360w, https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/imag0204-150x90.jpg 150w, https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/imag0204-300x179.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4135\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Advent Nativity&#8221; photo by Julia Walsh FSPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>They&#8217;re together. They&#8217;re quiet. They&#8217;re very still. \u00a0They could get tired from being faithful to allowing an open space for God to be between them. \u00a0Yet, they boldly believe that Love will arrive, so they continue to wait.<\/p>\n<p>We all are waiting for Love to arrive and feed our hungry, hurting hearts. \u00a0We are together, trying to be quiet and still, no matter the commotion. \u00a0We may get tired and overwhelmed by the injustices and suffering, yet we&#8217;re trying to allow signs of hope to be seen in the darkness. We&#8217;ll light candles and vigil on street corners, we&#8217;ll fast outside government buildings and we&#8217;ll pray through the night. As we do, we&#8217;ll create openings for quiet so Christ can come tell us of light, peace, and joy.<\/p>\n<p>The holy darkness gets cold, especially when someone like Mensa dies. \u00a0Yet we&#8217;ll keep waiting in silent expectation because we still believe. Even in the darkness, healing happens and hope can arrive. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past Monday\u00a0one of my former students was shot and killed on the streets of Chicago. Advent is a time of darkness. \u00a0Sometimes it is obvious to us that there&#8217;s a such thing as holy darkness. And, sometimes the darkness is so cold and heavy that it seems to swallow our hope. During Advent we...","protected":false},"author":4071079,"featured_media":4135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2178641],"tags":[698755378,5154,369379,3043789,698755374,67908,7897,401,20816,203459205,492957,5841,30351,358739,3232,203459206,90916,1591,936],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-4119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayer-and-spirituality","tag-advent","tag-chicago","tag-christmas-decorations","tag-christmas-preparations","tag-community","tag-darkness","tag-evil","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-mensa-kilfes-death","tag-nativity-scene","tag-sadness","tag-service","tag-shootings","tag-silence","tag-st-gregory-the-great-high-school","tag-street-violence","tag-teaching","tag-waiting","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/imag0204.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Z147Nd4v6K\"><a href=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2013\/12\/06\/street-violence-and-holy-darkness\/\">Street violence and holy darkness<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2013\/12\/06\/street-violence-and-holy-darkness\/embed\/#?secret=Z147Nd4v6K\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Street violence and holy darkness&#8221; &#8212; Messy Jesus Business\" data-secret=\"Z147Nd4v6K\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! 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