Come, Lord Jesus

The plea and mantra of Advent is the short prayer, Come, Lord Jesus.  We say it so often that we become numb to its centrality to Advent's purpose.  Like the Hebrews since the time of the Babylonian Exile, the collective longing for the coming of the Messiah, the Savior, has been vocalized from generation to generation in many forms, but the ancient Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus, is perhaps the most poignant and succinct.  It requires no effort to be remembered, and can be repeated as a personal prayer, whispered, shouted, or internalized.  It is a prayer that gathers scattered people, and our scattered thoughts, and brings them into unity.  When besieged by the distractions of Christmas preparations and more recently, of the Newtown tragedy or the "fiscal cliff" debates, by praying this simple refrain, we can refocus our minds on Jesus and the events surrounding his first coming, his many comings into our hearts in our personal history and receptions of the Eucharist; of his coming at the hour of our death, and at the end of time. If we are not asking Jesus to come into our life as its center, we become like reed shaken and broken by the wind. Come, Lord Jesus.  Come, Lord Jesus.
Bro. Rene