The Heart of Advent

“So, who’s that dude with his hand touching his heart?”

I looked out the car window. We were passing the Catholic cathedral on Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas. “Uh, that dude would be Jesus,” I answered. 

We were with Ethan, our youngest nephew, who lives in New Mexico but was staying with us while performing in Wilshire’s summer MusiCamp. It was a fair question coming from a boy raised in the evangelical church and not the Catholic tradition. I was raised in that same tradition and at that age I might have had the same question, because our church, like Ethan’s church, didn’t have statues and icons. It’s mostly years and experience that provided me the answer.

We laughed about Ethan’s question at the time — mostly about that word “dude” — but now I’m giving the question more serious thought. Isn’t Ethan’s question one that we struggle with no matter our years and experience? Aren’t we always asking, “Who is that man named Jesus?”

We’ve just entered the season of Advent when we’re not only preparing and waiting for the coming of Christ, but we’re asking, “Who is this man, really?” The answers are out there, but ideas such as “God incarnate” still can be on the fringes of our understanding. 

What’s worse, the answers can be glossed over easily in the rush of the holidays. We read the scriptural accounts of how a messiah was proclaimed by the prophets and in time was born, and we sing the hymns and carols that proclaim that joyful news. But are we just reading and singing without much thought, or are we seeking an answer to the question too — the question that Ethan asked? If not, then perhaps we should be, because if we really ask the question, then we might find an answer that goes beyond just the event of Christ’s birth. 

The statue that Ethan saw depicts Christ with his hand on his heart. The image is prominent in the Catholic tradition and is known as the “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Often the heart is wrapped in a crown of thorns, overlaid with a cross, pierced and bleeding, radiating light — all representing the long-suffering love and compassion of the heart of Christ towards humanity. The image embodies the entirety of Christ’s birth, ministry, death and resurrection.

And isn’t that at the heart of what Advent and Christmas are about: preparing our hearts for the God who became human and gave his own heart for the sake of humankind?

By the way, the statue Ethan saw was at the peak of the gable above the front doors of the cathedral. To see it, Ethan had to be paying attention. What’s more, he had to be looking skyward out the car window. That’s a pretty good disposition to be in when seeking an answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?” Or in the vernacular of our time, “Who’s that dude?”