As we enter the final days of Advent, we are invited to reflect on love—the foundation of human flourishing. For those who celebrate, Advent prepares us to recognize God’s arrival as a baby—a profound and shocking reminder that love is not abstract but something deeply relational, formative, and not afraid or separated from the everyday realities of this world.
Today, I want to point us toward the everyday and practical. Both science and wisdom traditions affirm that love is vital to our well-being. Deep relationships—marked by connection, safety, and vulnerability—are not luxuries for the lucky but necessities for a flourishing life. In my work as a spiritual director, I get to witness how relationships grounded in love can offer growth, healing, and restoration. And further, I have come to believe that Love, as we interact within it, transforms every part of us.
Many studies reveal that people with deep friendships live longer, recover more quickly from illness, and experience lower levels of stress and depression. In other words, love strengthens our immune systems, improves heart health, and even rewires our brains for greater resilience and empathy. Far from being simply an emotion, Love moves us toward wholeness.
In a world where loneliness is now described as an epidemic and where the stupidity of violence and war machines continue to be celebrated, Advent reminds us that love calls us to live differently. Love is a counter-way to the cycles of violence and estrangement, inviting us to seek connection and wholeness instead. It calls us out of isolation and into the fragility of relationship, where Love comes alive—whether in the warmth of a close friendship, the kindness of a community, or the shared vulnerability of a deep conversation. These are not incidental or quaint ideas for humanity; they are its core.
As this final week of Advent unfolds, how might we open ourselves to and engage with love? What does love call us to resist? What intentional relationships might draw us closer to the love that is always inviting us, forming and sustaining us?
This Christmas, may we welcome love and allow it to shape us, heal us, and make us whole.
Shane Ash 