Tag: <span>Advent</span>

December 21, 2020December 16, 2020

Christmas is Coming Now

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

As Christmas becomes imminent, what are our expectations for it? What are we hoping for this Christmas?

Advent is so strange. It commemorates an expectant waiting from long ago for the coming of the Savior, and it reflects a deep yearning for His return that we have no reason believe is occurring on December 25th of this year. The high expectancy of Advent seems caught between a past event and a future event of undetermined date, and seems, at first glance, not to have a particularly tangible relevancy to the present.

How different for the deeply contemplative soul. Such a soul has experienced God, has tasted Him, and has experienced how inexpressibly enriching growth in one’s relationship with Him is. But such a soul is also constantly in contact with its own misery, borne down upon by its circumstances in this broken world, as well as its own limitations and sins.

For such a soul, the expectation of Christmas can rival the expectation of Israel for the first Christmas, and can rival the most tangible ache for the Lord’s Second Coming. For the contemplative soul knows from experience that Jesus can make Himself mystically present in its life in such a palpable, real, grace-showering way, that the soul feels no envy of St. Joseph holding the baby Jesus in the manger, or of St. John beholding Christ’s victory as he wrote the Book of Revelation.

For such a soul, readings like today’s first reading resonate so deeply. This is how the soul desires to encounter the Lord at Christmas. For such a soul, today’s gospel likewise resonates: The soul longs for Christmas to bring an even more tangible sense of calling, mission, purpose, and dignity to its life, as was the case for Mary when she became the Mother of Jesus.

For the contemplative soul, the impact of Christ’s renewed presence at Christmas can be an eminently present-day event.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: As Advent comes to a close, express to Jesus like never before your longing for His invasion of your life, as He invaded history around the year zero. Let Him know of your longing and ask Him to burst in this Christmas. Don’t hold back.

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December 16, 2020December 10, 2020

Rain

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above.” “Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior.”

God gave us a choice when He created us; we could choose Him, or choose against Him. Choosing Him wasn’t that hard and it certainly wasn’t irrational. But we chose against Him. The deed was done. There was no turning back.

There was no turning back, because God is faithful to Himself: He created us with free choice; He respected that choice; so His hands were tied to undo what we had done.

Nor did we deserve to have our choice rolled back. Our choice was entirely our own–and we had chosen wrong.

Here we are in Advent; we can imagine ourselves in that first Advent. The world is a cold, dark, hopeless place.

And we plead with God to rain down the Just One, and for the earth to bring forth a Savior.

And so, in the most creative solution to a problem ever conceived in human history, God uses the permission of a sinless young maiden to allow for His re-intervention in human history, by which–at the highest imaginable price–He will not roll back that free decision of our which He respects, but rather purchase for every human the ability to choose differently, to choose the higher, more difficult path of eternal happiness. Through no merit of ours, He intervenes.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus how much you need an extra infusion of Him in your life this Christmas. Tell Him about the darkness you feel in your world this Advent, and ask Him to send down the grace of His joy, strength, virtue, goodness, and wisdom like a rain shower in your life.

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December 13, 2020November 29, 2020

Remember the Darkness

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Advent readings like today’s first reading go well with our external preparations for Christmas–with trimming hearth and tree, and baking Christmas cookies. There is such a warm beauty to them: “I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.”

“He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God.”

These are the sorts of readings that get us excited again about receiving the gift of saving and sanctifying grace with the Incarnation of the Word of God at Christmas–when God breaks into our dark lives like the dawn.

Think, though, what it would be like live before Jesus’ birth, when the world was shrouded in sin and there was no option for salvation. The world had rejected God definitively, and all there was to do was to repent and try to offend him less. He still merited a life of dedication, for He was the good God, our Creator; but the door to eternal life stood shut, due to our own definitive option for sin.

From this perspective, think of how much more still these words from the first reading hold hope and beauty. We know not how it will happen, but from the prophets we know that God has a plan to burst back into our lives and rescue us…

Today, we already enjoy the ability to choose the grace of God, won for us through the Nativity and the events that followed, and we can take it for granted. It will do us well to meditate on how that was not always the case–to place our hearts in the position of those who originally hoped in a mysterious and glorious intervention of God into history.

And then, to consider that even though we live in the years after Christ’s first coming, there is no reason that we cannot hope–and ask Him–for a renewal of grace in us this Christmas so revolutionary for our sanctification, that it is almost as if we never knew Him before, by comparison.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Imagine the times before the coming of Jesus–knowing that God would do something to rescue humanity, but not knowing what. Now, think of how we likewise hope for eternal life, and Jesus’ Second Coming, even though we don’t know just what these will be like. Ask Jesus this Advent to give you the priceless gift of joy-filled, even excited, hope in Him.

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December 11, 2020November 24, 2020

Outfielder’s Mitt

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Advent is a time when we await the coming of the Lord. Many of the readings in this season offer a beautiful, consoling picture of the Messiah bringing joy and fruitfulness back to our lives–it is a season full of joyful hope as we, who still feel the darkling impact of original sin in our lives, look forward to and pray for a new irruption of Christ’s grace into our reality as we celebrate Christmas.

But Advent, not unlike Lent, is also a time for penance. The first reading provides a hint as to why: “I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.” In order to benefit fully from what Jesus brings us at Christmas, we need to wrench our lives onto His path. We need to align our choices with His choice to redeem us.

The Gospel shows us a sad vignette of what happens when we fail to work this alignment: “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.” The aligning of our lives to God’s will is not about earning our salvation. It is more like an outfielder’s aligning of his mitt to be ready to catch the ball, which has been struck with an almighty force in his direction.

This aligning action–the ascetic sacrifice of our inclinations to laziness, pride, sensuality, anger, etc.–is laborious, but not so laborious that it distracts from our hope. Jesus is coming. He is going to work a miracle with us that far exceeds the mere fruits of our humble ascetic action.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to open your eyes and help you identify the areas where you need to align your life more to Him. Ask Him earnestly to give you the Holy Spirit and wake you up, where necessary, to avoid the pitfall of error and misalignment in your life. And tell Him that you trust Him, that the prize that He is far exceeds the labor involved in following Him.

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December 10, 2020November 24, 2020

Taken by Violence

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.”

The interpretations of this saying of Jesus are many and varied.

One attributed to St. Jerome, original translator of the Bible into Latin, refers to the mortification of our own passions and inclinations. This mortification is “violent” to our fallen nature, and it is necessary for entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus is drawing a distinction between the time of the prophets, and the time from John the Baptist until His present, that is, the Messianic time.

It would seem safe to say that the difference between these two eras was not that there was more violence in one than in the other. The difference was that the violence in Jesus’ time was retaking the Kingdom of Heaven.

We would love if it were otherwise, but the reopening–the retaking–of the Kingdom of Heaven did and does involve violence. To reopen the door to Heaven shut by original sin, as St. Jerome’s interpretation indirectly indicates, Jesus had and has to do violence to the evil tendencies brought to us by original sin. But also, Jesus Himself had to suffer violence to save us–“The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence.”

Without attempting to put fine a point on the interpretation of this passage, let us meditate on the fact that our time in salvation history involves turbulence and even violence associated with the the encounter of the Holy One, in history and in our own lives, with the evil force of original sin. And let’s get ready for constant battle.

But, the prize is worth it, as the first reading tells us. “I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water.”

When we let Jesus and His Holy Spirit into our lives, this is not an entirely peaceful event. “I have come to bring, not peace, but a sword.” (cf. Mt. 10:34) But the fulfillment He brings if we welcome Him and the battle He brings into our hearts is no less than the effect of life-giving irrigation on earth parched and exhausted by sin.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus you understand that the transformation He brings will not be easy–but that you trust Him to give you the strength to bear it, and that you want Him and all He brings, even if that includes pain and conflict. Your trust is the greatest consolation any creature can bring Him.

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December 9, 2020November 22, 2020

The Sacred Heart of the Savior

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

As they prepare us for Christmas, our Advent readings focus on a wide, rich array of benefits for which the world can look to its coming Savior. In recent days we have seen promise of healing, and of restoration of bounty.

Today’s first reading tell us that we can look to Him for rest and stamina–that we may not grow weary with the excessive burden that this life, and this broken world, put upon us.

And which of us has not felt at some time overwhelmed with the burden of our responsibilities? Weary without recourse to rest? The nurse works a double shift in times of need; the miner returns home with weary bones, concerned with the possible effect of the mine on his lungs; the priest, stretched thin, finds little sympathy and less time for disconnecting and rest.

Above all, the weight of these burdens affects our soul: At times, the more we work, the more we feel that we get behind; how can we do right by the ones we love?

There seems to be no respite from this exhaustion spiral. But Jesus gives us the secret about where we are to find respite, as foreshadowed by the first reading: His Heart. Making time for prayer can seem one more burden. But the effect is the reverse. We immerse our cares and sense of inadequacy in His meek and merciful Heart, and He teaches us that our gift of self is actually more than enough–because He is the one ultimately who does the heavy lifting for our loved ones. Our gift on its own falls miserably short, but in His redemptive hands it becomes a source of powerful grace–because it triggers a further outpouring of HIS gift.

This is what we can expect from the Savior who comes as a little baby at Christmas.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you always to bear in mind that He is the only authentic source of rest for your soul, because all that you work for and care about is superabundantly supplemented by what His loving Heart pours out into your life.

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December 7, 2020November 21, 2020

Get Up

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Advent readings these days are full of prophecy-fulfillment dynamics.

Today’s first reading speaks of the lame leaping like a stag, and in the Gospel reading we see Jesus, the Messiah of prophecy, curing a paralyzed man and bidding him get up.

As we turn our hearts back in time this Advent and await with the pre-Christian world the coming of the Messiah, we do so with an advantage: We know how the story progresses when the Messiah comes. We know that He is indeed the complete fulfillment of the prophecies.

We know, for example, that as we develop a life of grace–that is, a life of prayer and the sacraments–He fulfills the prophecy of the first reading. The blind eyes of our hearts are opened through the wisdom and understanding that Jesus gradually confers on us as gifts of His Holy Spirit. The parched steppe of our hearts rejoices and blooms as it is watered with the blood of the lamb, and filled with fruitful grace.

But we can empathize deeply with the pre-Christian world, immersed in darkness and bereft of grace, as we consider how Jesus’ work in us is not yet complete, and will not be until He comes again: We are still in so many ways broken, in need of His continuing work of transformation.

Still, ultimately, the Advent message is one of hope–immense hope like that of the paralytic as he rose and picked up his stretcher, full of joy not only at having been cured of his paralysis, but also completely freed from the burden of sin.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Consider what forms of “paralysis” Jesus has already healed in you, and what remains to be healed. Give Him the consolation that He is thirsting for: The consolation of your trust. Tell Him that as you celebrate His coming again this Christmas, you know that He will continue to come into your life and work His transformation. And ask Him to do so in abundance.

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December 6, 2020November 19, 2020

Prep

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!”

The second reading, from the second letter of Peter, provides a key to unlock how the first reading and the gospel fit together today.

The time between Christ’s first coming and our day can feel eternal to us: Two millennia have gone by, after which humanity barely recalls what happened all those years ago. It may seem like Jesus’ Second Coming, if it hasn’t occurred already, probably never will.

But Peter tells us that a thousand years are like a day for God. So, in “His time,” two days have gone by since Jesus’ Incarnation. And it won’t be long at all before He comes again.

With this key in mind, we see that today’s first reading from Isaiah and the gospel from Mark can be read on two different levels. On the one hand, they have their immediate audiences. Isaiah assures the people of Israel that the Messiah will be coming soon. John is that voice crying out in the desert, that everyone should get ready, because His arrival is imminent.

But on the other hand, these messages apply equally directly to us who live in this seemingly longer span of “God’s time.” It is no less urgent for us to prepare a way for the Lord in our hearts, because–two thousand years later–He is ready to visit us as He did the whole world at the Incarnation, and establish a very real relationship with us, as real and intimate as His relationship with humanity became when He took on flesh. And soon, very soon from God’s perspective, He is coming to take us with Him to perfect that relationship, exalt it, and bring it to definitive fulfillment.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Reread the first reading and the Gospel passage in the light of God’s invitation to you through them to reject sin in your personal life and truly prepare a way for Him in your heart, and then walk that way in your daily prayer with Him. Recommit to Jesus that you are one hundred percent all in with Him, and ask Him to bring about His Messianic plan through you.

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December 4, 2020November 18, 2020

Putting Back What Was Destroyed

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today’s readings are all about Redemption.

The first reading doesn’t just talk about forgiveness from sins–it talks about the Redemption that comes with that forgiveness. The image of Lebanon becoming like an orchard, a rich forest. The image of the restoration of faculties: The blind see, the deaf here.

Redemption is more than just the removal of guilt. It is the restoration of faculties lost with sin: Joy, hope, discernment, wisdom, willpower, etc.

Redemption is not the elimination of an evil stain, but the restoration of things destroyed by sin.

Jesus symbolizes throughout His public life the restoration He performs with His saving act of the whole human person, through the powerful restoration of physical faculties lost as an indirect result of sin, such as the faculty of sight. We see an example of this in today’s Gospel.

The fact that Redemption is not just a cleansing, but a positive restoration, is an exciting thing for our spiritual life. Whereas cleansing is limited to the degree of the stain, restoration of our faculties–and the ability to enhance them through grace–is as limitless as God Himself is limitless. Redemption is the foundation of a life-long, even eternal process of approximation of what we are as humans to the infinite love, goodness, wisdom of God.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think back to the freeing feeling you experienced after one of your confessions. Yes, a burden was lifted. But consider too that your faculty for experiencing joy was restored, along with a restored ability to make good judgements and act on them. Thank Jesus again for this inestimable restorative gift, and ask Him to build an edifice of true holiness upon it–if not for your own sake, then for the sake of those whom holy persons can help save.

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December 2, 2020December 12, 2020

The Alpha and the Omega

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

It is prophesied, and it is fulfilled. All in today’s readings.

He will feed his people a rich feast on the mountain; He will destroy death.

And He does: Even physically, He destroys the grip that death exerts on the living, in the form of deformities and handicaps. He feeds thousands on the mountainside. All in today’s Gospel passage.

But these are just images of what He does for the whole person through the salvation He brings.

It is easy to become discouraged in a world where the transformation Jesus came to effect is still an incomplete process; where sin still reigns, and the salvation of humanity is a work in progress, and so many do not choose its path.

But as we look toward Christmas from the perspective of Advent, let our joyful anticipation be not half-hearted: Jesus did not come to leave a job half done. The baby that comes at Christmas is the definitive, final answer to death and misery. Full of this conviction, let us be joyful and grateful that we get to be part of the process He has undertaken, before it is complete.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Renew your faith and hope in Jesus, that He is the Alpha and the Omega–not just the Alpha. He is the Beginning and the End (cf. Rev. 22:13). Tell Him you put all your eggs in His basket, without hesitation; that you renew your total gift of self to Him. Give Him your futility, your ruin, your brokenness, knowing that these are the very materials He will use to complete His mission.

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