Advent Day 2: BOUND

Monday is typically my day off or, said more properly, my Sabbath.  My practice of Sabbath fluctuates -- sometimes through good, new ideas and sometimes through lazy attrition.  Ideally, what it means to practice Sabbath is to honor Ireneus' saying from the 4th century:

"The glory of God is the human person fully alive"

To ask, in what ways has this past week detracted from life in all it's fullness.  Where am I depleted and in need of God's rest, joy and peace?
The answer is sometimes (almost always) to sleep a little later, to pray a little more deeply, to honor my body through exercise and good food and to do something that engages my curiosity and creativity. Thankfully, in Washington DC, the latter is not hard to come by.

All of this is a very long preamble to the point. Today Sabbath meant going to see a movie:

12 Years a Slave is the story of freeman, Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped and forced to live as a slave on plantations in the American South.  The story is heart-wrenching and the acting does it justice.  

The Advent-Word-of-the-Day is BOUND, which made this movie quite obviously relevant.  There is a scene near to the end of the movie -- a close up of Solomon's face as he waits in hope that finally, finally someone who owes him nothing will take the side of justice and common humanity.  This one shot of his face is, without words, the very heartbeat of Advent.  

(spoiler alert) May we too find that our waiting in hope is fulfilled by one who owes us nothing, one who is divinely just and shares our humanity, one who is our friend. 

He comes the prisoners to release,

In Satan’s bondage held;

The gates of brass before Him burst,

The iron fetters yield.