“Go and tell John what you hear and see,” Jesus told John’s disciples when they asked about him. The directions he gave them included specific phrases and images that would give John — and his disciples — the verification that, yes, Jesus was the Messiah. That guy. The One.

At last. 

And it was all very, very different from what everyone wanted and expected.

The people couldn’t stay away from John…and found themselves magnetically attracted to Jesus, too. Maybe they couldn’t explain why (unless they were suddenly not lame or not blind anymore, that is), but they knew there was something.

Advent can be like that. We want to push back, to have the dark cave of silence, but there’s a promise of more. Or maybe we want the flashing lights and loud songs, only to find that what we’re offered is low-key and hidden.

Jesus is found in both. It’s not a mutually exclusive proposition, the joy he offers us. Instead, He is there in both the bold and the quiet. He was at the center of a crowd in Jerusalem and yet born in a lonely cave in the middle of Nowheresburg.

That joy that seems to elude you during Advent isn’t just beyond your grasp. It is within you, just as Jesus is within you. Maybe it’s covered up and needs excavating, with some help from the sacraments. This is a great week to carve out time for Confession and make time for a Holy Hour, to pause and pray for an extra hour.