1st Sunday after Advent
As promised last week, let’s consider today the Second Coming of Our Lord and the end of the world, not from the perspective of the suffering it will bring, but rather from that of the joyful encounter with our Saviour. It goes without saying that such joy can only belong to those who truly love Our Lord and have spent their lives aspiring to seeing Him one day in His glory.
At First Vespers of Christmas Day, we will sing a beautiful antiphon inspired by Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel: Levate capita vestra; ecce appropinquabit redemptio vestra. Lift up your heads, for your redemption approaches. Clearly, when it becomes obvious that this world as we know it is passing away and that the final judgement is upon us, there is only one category of person that will be inclined to look up to Heaven with confidence, and that is those who have gotten into the practice of looking up to Heaven throughout their lives, as the psalmist encourages us to do frequently and as illustrated by today’s introit and offertory verses: To Thee I lift up my soul, my God, in Thee I trust, let me not be put to shame.
Why then will such souls have that reflex to look up to Heaven? Quite simply because they will have come to experience that the answers to all their existential questions can be found only in Jesus Christ. They may have looked for answers in many places, but they came to realise that no one had the answers but Jesus.
In a passage that we read liturgically during the octave of Easter as it applies so well to the newly baptised, St Peter, writes at the beginning of his first epistle that even though we have not seen Him, that is to say Christ, we have come to love Him; though we do not see Him now, we believe in Him, and our faith will lead to ineffable joy in the glory of Heaven (cf. 1Pt 1:8).
So the question we need to ask ourselves is: do we truly love Christ? If not, then now is the time to ask for the grace to do so. Among the considerations that would move us to love Him more, we can recall certain words that He spoke while on earth. Take, for example, those marvellous utterances at the Last Supper, when St John tells us that He loved His own who were in the world, and He loved them to the end (Jn 13:1): As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love (Jn 15:9). Or those other marvellous words St Paul writes to the Galatians: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself for me (Gal 2:20).
It is certain that Jesus loves us. This is why He came to earth and lived among us. He loves each one of us and He wants us to be with Him forever. Is it possible to know this and not feel moved to love Him in return? Really the only way that could happen is if some other love interfered, a love that is incompatible with His love. If a man falls in love with a woman other than his wife, the new love makes it impossible for him to love his wife as he should, for he is divided. If we love any creature more than Christ, then our love for Him cannot be full as it is meant to be. This is the principle reason for which Holy Church invites us during Advent to moderate our earthly affections, to practice some self-denial with regard to creatures, to give up things, in a similar way to our Lenten observance. It’s all destined to restore our love for Christ and to deepen it.
So let this be our concern this Advent, that is, to love Christ more. Last week we insisted on the the importance of humility for it is the only virtue the devil cannot fake. Love is the one virtue we can never overdo. We cannot love God too much. Most of us do not love Him enough. Actually, we are all in that category, for as St Bernard says so well, the measure of the love of God is to love without measure, so if we measure our love for God, then we are not loving Him as we should.
If we are inclined to think that we do not know how to love, St Francis de Sales comes to our aid with the following consoling words: “It is not possible to know if you love God above all things unless God reveals it to you. It is easy, however, to know if you desire to love God. If there is a desire for holy love in you, you may be sure you are beginning to love…. The desire of loving and love itself depend upon this same will. As soon as we have an honest desire of loving, we begin to love a little. As the desire increases, love increases. If you ardently desire to love, you will soon love ardently. Spiritual hunger, in which one sighs incessantly after the pure gold of divine love, is the root of all good. Anyone who really wants love goes looking for it and will find it”.
To help us in loving more, let’s turn to Our Blessed Mother whose Immaculate Conception we prepare now to celebrate. St Maximilian Kolbe writes: “When our heart is submerged in darkness and aridity of soul afflicts us, and even when we are in the disgrace of sin, oh, what a powerful and sweet invocation is the prayer: ‘Mary!’ Do not worry in the least if you do not feel the sweetness of love. The desire to love is a sure sign that you are already loving”.
If we do progress in our love for God this Advent, then will we be inclined to lift up our heads when we see Christ coming on the clouds of Heaven. Indeed, we will not be among those who will be terrified by the Judge, but we will be delighted by the sight of the one we have longed for all our lives. So let us love Him now, not so much because of the awful realities from which He delivers us nor for the good things He gives us, but for Himself, for He is infinitely loveable.
