Our Humble and Ordinary Cooperation with God

Readings 122225 

In these last days of Advent,
I’m reminded of how many people are looking for the last days—
the day the Lord will come again.
The drama of the end times.
Proclaimed by would‑be prophets.
Some even saying they know the date,. Because of their faith, their unique spirituality,
God has given them private revelations.

But in all this talk about the end,
Scripture quietly reminds us:
God works through the ordinary…
not instead of us,
but with us.

And sometimes our religious habits, good as they are,
can tempt us to escape from the real world.
We can long for heaven so much
that we stop noticing what God is doing right here.
Or we pray for quick solutions
that don’t ask anything of us.

But true spirituality is never an escape.
It’s an entrance.
It’s stepping more deeply
into the life we already have.

Look at Hannah, the mother of Samuel.
She didn’t run from her life.
She returned to the very place
where she once wept for a child,
and she offered her son to the Lord.
Not dramatic.
Just faithful.
Her ordinary cooperation with God.

And Mary—our Blessed Mother—did the same.
She didn’t hide from her fears or questions.
She traveled to Elizabeth.
She helped.
She served.
She lived her Magnificat in the real world,
trusting that God’s mercy
was already lifting up the lowly
and filling the hungry.

Both women show us
that holiness isn’t found in escaping life,
but in embracing it with God.

The kingdom of God comes quietly,
under the appearance of everyday life—
in the kitchen,
at work,
in conversations,
in the small choices to love,
to forgive,
to stay faithful.

Our ordinary life
is already filled with the sacred.
It cannot be any other way,
because God is with us.

So as Advent draws to a close,
the invitation is simple:
Stop waiting for God to act instead of you.
Start noticing how God is acting through you.

In the humble,
the ordinary,
the everyday—
Emmanuel is here.

Prayer: Emmanuel in the Everyday

Lord Jesus,
You come not in thunder,
but in footsteps beside us.
Not in spectacle,
but in the quiet work of love.

Teach us to see You
in the kitchen,
in the field,
in the faces we meet.

Make our ordinary faithful.
Make our daily sacred.
Make our hearts ready
to welcome You again.

Emmanuel,
God with us—
stay with us.

Amen.