Reflections for Advent by Saint Josemaría Escrivá De Balaguer (1902-1975) Today marks the beginning of Advent. And it is good for us to consider the wiles of these enemies of the soul: the disorder of sensuality and easy-going superficiality, the folly of reason that rejects God, the cavalier presumption that snuffs out love for both God and creatures. All these obstacles are real enough, and they can indeed cause us a great deal of trouble. In today’s gospel for this first Sunday Christ warns us to be vigilant and always prepared for our encounter with Him, not only because ‘you do not know the day’, but also because ‘He will come at an hour you do not expect!’ Saint Paul, in today’s Epistle, taken from his letter to the Romans, shows you how to prepare yourself: ‘Do not be foolish, but live as is expected from the children of light. You are a child of God! Give up all the things that you prefer to do but belong to darkness and displease God. Avoid any impurities of the flesh. Forget about satisfying the desires of your body with all their cravings. Instead, let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ.’ In other words, prepare yourself to be just as worthy as Mary and Joseph were when they received Him into our world on the day of His birth in Betlehem. Make this your prayer: ‘Lord, I desire to receive You within me worthily, with the purity, humility and devotion with which your Immaculate Mother and Saint Joseph her husband most chaste received you, and with the spirit and fervour indicated by Saint John the Baptist, Your precursor, whom You sent to prepare the way for You. Not only this Christmas, but always, so that I am worthy to be received by You when You decide to call me to encounter You’ Advent is here. What a marvellous time in which to renew your desire, your nostalgia, your real longing for Christ to come, for Him to be one with you, especially to come every day to your soul in the Eucharist. The Church encourages us: Ecce veniet! — He is about to arrive! Seek union with God and fill yourself up with hope — that sure virtue! — because Jesus will illuminate the way for you with the light of His infinite love and mercy, even in the darkest night. Look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand. This time of Advent is a time for hope. These great horizons of our Christian vocation, this unity of life built on the presence of God our Father, can and ought to be a daily reality. I do not wish to go on any longer on this first Sunday of Advent, when we begin to count the days separating us from the birth of the Saviour. We have considered the reality of our Christian vocation: how our Lord has entrusted us with the mission of attracting other souls to sanctity, encouraging them to get close to Him, to feel united to the Church, to extend the kingdom of God to all hearts. Jesus wants to see us dedicated, faithful, responsive. He wants us to love Him. It is His desire that we be holy, very much His own, that we become like Him, another Christ, Christ Himself! Our Lord is not removing you from your environment. He is not taking you away from the world, or from your condition in life, or from your noble human ambitions, or from your professional work. But He wants you to be a saint - right there! Marvel at Gods magnanimity: He has become Man, a human being just like you, to redeem us, so that you and I, who are absolutely worthless, admit it! - may come to know Him, trust Him and love Him. Iesus Christus, Deus homo: Jesus Christ, God-man. This is one of ‘the mighty works of God,’ which we should reflect upon and thank Him for. He has come to bring peace on earth to men of good Will, to all men who are willing to love and serve Him by uniting their wills to the holy will of God — not just the rich, not just the poor, but everyone: all the brethren. We are all brothers in Jesus, children of God, brothers of Christ. His Mother Mary is our mother too. Saint Joseph, His Protector here on earth, is our Protector too. You must look at the Child in the manger. He is our Love. Look at Him, realizing that the whole thing is a mystery. We need to accept this mystery on faith and use our faith to explore it very deeply. To do this, we must have the humble attitude of a Christian soul. Let us not try to reduce the greatness of God to our own poor ideas and human explanations. Let us try to understand that this mystery, for all its darkness, is a light to guide mens lives towards never-ending happiness. NOTE O Come, O Come Emmanuel! is a loyal English version of the 12th century Latin hymn Veni, Veni, Emmanuel! I particularly like this version as it also incorporates Hatikvah (meaning in Hebrew: The Hope) and which is today the Israeli national anthem.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 06:41:51 +0000
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