Magic and Christ's Peace

Over the last several months I’ve been obsessively practicing and studying magic. The most important piece of advice I was ever given was the very first one: my job as a magician is to entertain and create a joyful moment to remember. That’s been my goal ever since. 

I’ve encountered a huge problem, though. I get unbelievably nervous and anxious when I’m performing. For a given trick, I need to misdirect attention, use slight of hand, count cards, and recall memorized numbers all while being entertaining and act as if nothing is happening. This becomes much more difficult with my sweaty, quivering hands, a frozen mind incapable of the simplest math problems or even just recalling a specific card, and a shaky voice. All eyes are on me with no one to help. Once I realize all this, I get even more nervous. And before I know it, I’m so anxious about all the details of the trick, I forget my end goal is to entertain and bring a smile to people’s faces.

In our lives we have the same temptation as I do in magic: to be so nervous and anxious about the little things we forget what is at the end. Jesus reminds us of this end today in the gospel: “they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Despite the chaotic and fierce imagery used to describe the second coming of Jesus, it’s instead something that can provide great liberation. We can labor for peace and justice in our communities without despair, even when darkness seems to prevail around us, because we know the perfect kingdom is only to come to completion through Jesus Christ. No matter how chaotic or busy our lives become we can rest in peace because unlike my magic performances, the ending is not something of our own doing, but of God, who is ever greater. This is the peace Christ brings us.

So this Advent let us heed Jesus’s invitation to not allow our hearts to be trapped by the anxieties of the day. Let us carve the space in our hearts to recognize that all the small anxieties of our lives are passing, and that it is God’s kingdom of peace that is everlasting.

Author: Hunter D'Armond, nSJ, visiting novice to Jesuit Dallas

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