Condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler, Father Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, wrote this piece in a Nazi prison shortly before he was hanged in 1945.Let us then live in today’s Advent, for it is the time of promise. To eyes that do not see, it still seems that the final dice are being cast down in the these valleys, on these battlefields, in those camps and prisons and bomb shelters. Those who are awake can sense the working of the other powers and can await the coming of their hour.
Space is still filled with the noise of destruction and annihilation, the shouts of self-assurance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and helplessness. But just beyond the horizon the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on us the first mild light of the radiant fulfillment to come. From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and singing boys, not yet discernible as a song or a melody. It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold. But it is happening. This is today.
Found in:
Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas
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