Univérsi, qui te exspéctant, non confundéntur, Dómine. Vias tuas, Dómine, notas fac mihi: et sémitas tuas édoce me. Allelúia, allelúia. Osténde nobis, Dómine, misericórdiam tuam: et salutáre tuum da nobis. Allelúia.
Interwoven in these considerations from the beginning of time to the end we are drawn to the desire for the coming of Jesus Christ. He is the focal point of all time. From the beginning of creation man has looked forward to God coming to this earth. Since the fall of man this yearning for the coming of God intensified. Throughout Advent we will spiritually take up this yearning that was so greatly desired in the Old Testament.
Since the birth of Christ we see that our measurement of time has been refocused as the time before His birth and the time after His birth. Today we do not look forward to His first coming to this earth, but rather we look forward to His second coming. In preparation for the celebration of His first coming (Christmas) we likewise prepare for a spiritual coming of Christ into our lives and look forward to His second coming at the end of time.
St. Paul in his letter to the Romans that we read in today’s Epistle gives us the tone of spirit that we are striving for in the season of Advent. “Let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
In our preparation for Christmas, it is time to put out of our lives all that is evil and all that is unbecoming the children of God. We must renew the promises of our baptism: “we renounce Satan and all his works, and all his pomp’s.” We have listened and followed the temptations and suggestions of these evil spirits for too long. Now is the time once and for all to put them behind us. Now is the time to break off our evil habits.
In our longing for the coming of Christ into our lives we must make the necessary preparations for Him. It matters not to Him whether we have rich and fine material ornaments, or rough and coarse ones. What is important to Him is that we have a humble heart that is filled with love. Christ willingly found His abode on Christmas day in a stable. So no matter how poor our hearts may be He will be pleased to enter. What He refuses to enter is the hearts filled with pride and self-love. These have no room for Him. These are most unwelcoming to Him. No matter how much perfume they may use, the stench of a soul dead in sin repulses the desire of God to enter their souls.
On the contrary, the soul that is steeped in humility, no matter how bare and uncomfortable it may appear becomes a most desirous place for God to dwell. The key is contrite humility.
Christ came to save those that were lost – the sinners. The first graces He gives them is humility and contrition. If we cooperate with these graces our souls will be most agreeable to Him and He will gladly take up His abode in them. A stable may appear to be the most unfit of places for Him, but this He has preferred to the proud and haughty dwelling places of men. So it is with our souls; He prefers the poor and humble soul to the self-righteous and proud one.
Advent then is a season of penance. It is a time for us to put off the sins of our past and begin a new life. It is time for us to yearn with our entire being for Christ to come to us. We look to the time before His physical coming into this world and with the same sentiments and desires we anticipate His arrival into our souls to transform them from stables into heavenly tabernacles. We also look forward to the second physical coming of Christ into this world when He will put everything into right order. He will remove the evil souls casting them into the depths of Hell for all of eternity. He will renew this earth transforming it into the paradise it was originally destined to be when God first created man and time.
Let us heed St. Paul’s admonition and make this Advent the best one that we have ever passed through. We consider all of created time and see that now is the acceptable time. Now is the time to prepare our souls by ridding them of all that is offensive or repulsive to God.