Return Home. O'Hare Airport.

Sitting in the terminal with my huge backpack and carry on, with a Starbucks in my hand and my mind wandering all over the place. I did it. The journey complete...at least the physical part and I wonder why....

I don't know exactly why I went on this spiritual odyssey turned pilgrimage. But I know the answer will be on God's terms and in God's time. Here I sit looking at the hustle and bustle with the obvious touches of Christmas. I'm even drinking Christmas Blend coffee.

Life truly goes on but it will be different for me because something major has just happened. Advent is almost upon us a season that anticipates the end of all time as we know it and the beginning of the Kingdom in its completion. It is a season that reminds us that we are all pilgrims on a definite trajectory in time, leading to an encounter with Christ who will return and make good on his promise. The Promise of a new and resurrected life; the Promise that Goodness and Beauty will finally have the last stamp on our beings; the Promise that the one truth of God and what he began in the act of Creation culminating in the entrance of the Son into humanity will envelope and transform each and every human being who has lived, is living or will live.

I am sitting here in this busy airport witnessing to hundreds of fellow pilgrims trying to make sense of their own lives and their own unique journey. We are a pilgrim church and s pilgrim people on a destination that had purpose and meaning. This is Advent, the reaffirmation that our lives have purpose and meaning.

Right now I'm in no rush. I just want to keep sipping my Christmas Blend and watching this great movement of humanity. Most of these human most likely are not thinking about the direction of their lives or the purpose of their lives which is the problem of our age and time. We need to stop and wonder and ask and search and let hope seep back into the crevices of the heart. Maybe that's what I'm supposed to do, to help people see the importance of stopping and thinking about where life is going and to what purpose. For now, I'm just going to enjoy my coffee...American style. Burn camino. Padre