Not Fiction: When God Intervenes in History

 

Friday of the Third Week of Advent

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Human beings, throughout history, tend to grow weary of the ordinary. When life feels repetitive, when routines weigh heavily and answers seem distant, we begin to look for something that lifts us beyond the everyday. We do not always seek deep explanations; often, we look for extraordinary stories, narratives that entertain us, that allow us to dream, that restore the sense that there is something greater than our daily routine.

That is why the contemporary world is filled with superheroes. Movies, series, and novels present figures with extraordinary powers, capable of saving the world and defeating evil through superhuman strength. They are fascinating characters, but in the end, they are fictional. They are born from human imagination to fill a void, to respond to the desire that someone might come and rescue us from what we cannot fix on our own.

Yet today, the Word of God presents us with something far more surprising. Not fictional superheroes, but real people, deeply human, firmly rooted in the concrete history of humanity. Scripture speaks to us of Samson and of John the Baptist—figures who, paradoxically, surpass any fictional hero, not through special effects, but through the quiet and powerful way in which God acts within them.

Both of their stories begin where nothing was expected. In the Book of Judges we are told plainly that “his wife was barren and had borne no children.” In the Gospel, Luke reminds us that “Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.” Scripture does not hide human fragility; it places it at the center. Where the world sees limitation, God sees possibility. Where history appears closed, God opens a new chapter.

And God does more than open a chapter—He consecrates life from its very beginning. Of Samson it is said, “The boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb.” Of John the Baptist we hear something even stronger: “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” Before any achievement, before any mission, there is God’s initiative. These are not heroes who create themselves; they are lives prepared by God.

Here lies the fundamental difference between fictional heroes and the “heroes” of Scripture. The former are born from human imagination; the latter are born from God’s promise. The former depend on their own strength; the latter depend on the Spirit. Samson begins the liberation of Israel. John the Baptist “prepares a people fit for the Lord.” God does not improvise salvation; He patiently prepares it, often in silence and waiting.

The psalm gives us the spiritual key to read all of this when it proclaims: “From my mother’s womb you are my strength.” True greatness does not arise from external power, but from a life sustained by God from the very beginning.

Advent, then, is not the expectation of something spectacular. It is the certainty that God continues to act where it seemed there was no future left. God does not need superheroes. God continues to write history with hearts that are available—even tired, even fragile—to bring forth something new for the world.