First Sunday of Advent

Woke up before sunrise this morning to the sound of a distant train whistle. Is there any other sound in the dark that better conveys vast distances and places far away?

Every year during Advent the Church begins again to reorient itself to the heavenly country which seems so far away. "Now in the time of this mortal life" we pray to the one who was, and is, and is to come. The distances stretch behind and before us.

But just like a newborn's cry, just like the train whistle which woke me this morning, the sound of that distant place is also right here, near at hand.

Listen with me.