Waiting In His Presence

First Thursday of Advent


It is the whole man who either goes out to meet Christ in His Advent
     or rejects Him with indifference.
                                                             Thomas Merton



The interior life, if it is authentic, is a making room for the coming of God into the depths of our very beings. A shuffling aside our strongholds of self to allow Him into this Advent; to allow Him to enlighten us with his invisible presence.  The Sacrament of Advent doesn’t merely celebrate the coming of God into the world in time, the Incarnate Word, but his presence here among us. We celebrate in the Holy Liturgy the yearning of the Messiah to come into the world, His coming, and His second coming in the future. The Church and the mysteries of the Liturgy embrace Man’s entire history of salvation.  May we come to stillness and deep quiet in the chambers of our waiting: looking, listening for the Advent lullaby the Church is singing, has been singing, up and down the ages. May we cradle the swaddling grace and immeasurable gift of the Christ child. He makes way for us to come to Him as a baby, as a lamb: the most unassuming who is full of mercy and gentleness. He comes close and is ever present as Creator. He is within us. His Advent is a manifestation of His presence already here and now.  His Divine Mercy shines out with his descent to all of us fallen: His diminishing to pull on skin. Our faith brings this Advent of Christ into our deepest reality. To learn, in our small, incremental ways, to love our Lord God with our whole hearts and minds and souls teaches us to bear our crosses, to be charitable, to transcend the puny limits of our knowledge, to lay down our wants, and to live the radical Gospel life. To abandon all for the love of Him so He may work His love through us like light from galaxies glimmering through the deep blue vaults of night.