*****
“Stay awake!”
In a reflection upon the season of Advent, Blessed Louis Brisson, OSFS observed:
“Advent means ‘coming.’ It is a time set aside to prepare for Christmas. These four weeks of Advent represent the four thousand years that preceded the coming of the Messiah. Throughout these many years, the prophets announced the coming of Our Lord.”
“There are two advents of Our Lord. The first is His great advent when he came to this earth to save us. He willed to come to us little, humble and unknown. He was born poor to show us that poverty is no disgrace. He willed to be a working man to teach us to love work as He loved it.”
“The second advent of Our Lord is made in our hearts. Every time that we have a good thought, every time that we take the Good Lord with us, every time that we make an act of fidelity - every time that we tell God that we are all His - an advent takes place. Our Blessed Savior visits our souls.” (Cor ad Cor, p. 13)
As we prepare for Jesus’ first advent in four weeks, we should do our level best to “be vigilant at all times.” We should be on the lookout for the legions of Jesus’ second advents. On any given day many opportunities come our way to have good thoughts, harbor good feelings, develop good attitudes and do good things, especially with and toward other people.
When these opportunities come – and with them, Jesus himself – will we be ready to receive them? Will we be ready to make good use of them?
Come – O come – Emmanuel!
*****
“I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”
On day two of our Advent journey toward the Solemnity of the Incarnation, listen to the words of Blessed Louis Brisson, OSFS:
“Man sinned and was driven from the earthly paradise. The merciful God promised a Savior, a Redeemer. But God did not tell us what kind of Redeemer He would send to save us. Most of the prophets, in announcing His coming, do not appear to have been concerned with the details. However, in His infinite mercy, God decided that the Redeemer should be none other than the Divine Word itself, His own Eternal Son. He would take our human nature and become one of us in order to make reparation for the offense committed against God, and also to serve as a model for us.” (Cor ad Cor, p. 13)
Clearly, since the fall of Adam and Eve, none of us is worthy to have God enter under our collective roofs. Driven out of Eden, our ancestors no longer felt at home with God. It is, therefore, all the more remarkable that, in the fullness of time, God chose to make His home within each and every one of us by taking on our nature in the person of His Son, Jesus. We are no longer strangers or orphans; we have found our new home in Christ.
Today following Jesus’ example, how can each of us make more of a home within our minds, hearts and lives for others?
*****
“The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him…”
In today’s selection from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we hear of the seven gifts associated with the presence and action of the Holy Spirit.
In a sermon preached during the last few years of his life to the Sisters of the Visitation, Saint Francis de Sales offered the following prayer:
“God grant us His gift of fear, that we might serve Him as His dutiful children; His gift of piety, that we might give Him due reverence as our loving Father; His gift of knowledge, that we may recognize the good we ought to do and the evil we should avoid; His gift of fortitude, that we may bravely overcome all the difficulties we shall meet in trying to be good; His gift of counsel, that we might discern and choose the best ways of living a life of devotion; His gift of understanding, that we may divine the beauty and value of faith’s mysteries and the Gospel principles; and finally, His gift of wisdom, that we may appreciate how lovable God is, that we may experience and thrill to the delight of that goodness of His which is more than our limited minds can fathom. O, the happiness that will be ours if we accept these precious gifts!” (Pulpit and Pew, p. 158)
What are the signs associated with our making good use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Isaiah cites several:
• Not judging by appearance or hearsay
• Judging the poor with justice
• Deciding aright for the afflicted
Today, how might you make good use of the Holy Spirit’s gifts?
*****
“At once they followed him...”
In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas J. Craughwell writes:
“Andrew and his brother Peter were sitting in their fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee, repairing their nets, when Christ called to them, saying, ‘Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ Although the brothers did leave their boat to follow the Lord, they never stopped catching fish: it was how they supported themselves and their families.
Time and time again the Gospels take us back to the Sea of Galilee: on one occasion, Jesus climbed into Peter and Andrew’s boat to preach to a crowd on the shore; on another, while the brothers and some of the other disciples were out fishing, they saw Jesus advancing toward them by walking on the water. After a long night of fishing and catching nothing, Christ urged the brothers to go out to the deepest part of the sea and lower their nets one more time. This time, the catch was so great that the fishing nets broke and Peter and Andrew had to signal to their fellow Apostles and business partners, James and John, to come help them haul in the fish. And, when there was nothing for the crowd of five thousand to eat, it was Andrew who brought forward a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish, which Christ multiplied to feed the multitude…with much leftover to boot.
Tradition says that Saint Andrew carried the Gospel to Greece. At the town of Patras, he was arrested and tied to an X-shaped cross. The legend claims that it took him three days to die, and the entire time he hung on the cross Saint Andrew preached to all who passed by.”
Andrew - once a fisherman, always a fisherman. A fisherman doesn’t get to pick the day, time, situation or circumstance in which he fishes. He simply fishes, come what may. A fisherman jumps at the chance to make a catch; he will drop whatever else he might be doing in pursuit of his livelihood. Such an avocation requires tenacity, patience, determination and a willingness to go with the flow. Perhaps that’s why Jesus called Andrew to become one of his Apostles/disciples, because such qualities could come in quite handy when it came to preaching the Good News.
Jesus calls each of us - in our own unique ways - to be fishers of “men.” To what degree does Jesus see in us some of the same qualities that he saw in Andrew?
*****
“A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us."
On this new day on our Advent journey, we listen to these words from Blessed Louis Brisson, OSFS:
“Father Chevalier, my moral theology professor, used to say to us, ‘Do you believe that Our Lord became human merely to redeem the world? He became human that we might partake of His life, of His body, of His soul, of His divinity and of His happiness.’ And who is this Model, this life and this Happiness - The Word-Made-Flesh Himself!”
“The Savior, Jesus Christ – the One Whom we attempt to reproduce in ourselves and Who is living in us – accomplishes this divine redemption in us. He gives us the grace to do this. He is our Exemplar, our Model. He walks before us. We have only to put our feet in His footprints. Thus, we will bring about our complete redemption.” (Cor ad Cor, pp. 18, 19)
We have a strong city in the person of Jesus Christ! In Christ, there are walls and ramparts in which we find not only protection but also experience “His life, His body, His soul, His divinity and His happiness.”
How might Jesus be inviting us to be a “strong city” in the lives of others? How might we become a source of support and protection for others today and help them to experience the life and happiness rooted in a life in and with Jesus?
*****
“Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction."
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Saint Francis de Sales wrote:
“When some people see the defects of others, they feel a certain satisfaction; they preen themselves more with the hope of getting others to admire the contrary good qualities that they mistakenly believe that they possess. Such self-satisfaction may be so secret and imperceptible that a person must have sharp eyes to discover it. And even those infected by it do not recognize it when it is shown to them. To flatter and excuse themselves and soften their own remorse of conscience, others are quite willing to judge their fellow men and women to be guilty of the very vices to which they themselves are addicted or to vices equally great. They think that pointing out the faults of others will somehow make their own less noteworthy. Still other people make a habit of rash judgment because they like to play the philosopher and probe into the moods and morals of others as a means of displaying their presumed intelligence. Sad to say, even if they happen to occasionally be right, their rashness and desire so far exceed their insight that they have difficulty turning away from them. To conclude, fear, ambition and other similar mental weaknesses often contribute to the birth of suspicion and rash judgment.” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 28, pp. 197-198)
As we prepare once again to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, the season of Advent invites us to turn away from our erring ways and to refrain from the temptation to find faults in others. In addition, what better way is there to celebrate the birth of the Messiah than by changing the ways that we think about ourselves and others than by recognizing – and naming – what is good in ourselves and what is good in others?
*****
“The Kingdom of heaven is at hand…”
One of the signs that Jesus associates with the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand is the driving out of demons.
The season of Advent provides each of us with a great opportunity to drive out from our own minds and hearts any number of demons with which we might be plagued. These demons – while they are not necessarily limited to this list – could include:
• Anxieties
• Grudges
• Bitterness
• Resentment
• Old Hurts
• Unresolved conflicts
• Unbridled anger
• Perfectionism
• Scrupulosity
• Negativity
• Ingratitude
• Presumption
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! Why not make more room in your life for the Word-Made-Flesh by driving out our demons through some heavy-duty spiritual house-cleaning between now and Christmas?
