http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2012-12/01-13/First_Sunday_of_Advent_C.

html First Sunday of Advent Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man (Lk 21:36) Christs recommendation introduces us to Advent, the Churchs new Liturgical Year and a time of grace in which we will be guided to meet, to know and to recognise the Mystery! The Mystery that, in less than a month, we will adore as a Child in the arms of a young Israelite, the Blessed and ever Virgin Mary. Why, at the dawn of this new Year of grace, does the Church make us listen to such a Gospel passage? In fact, the Lord Jesus addressed us in a way that, to many, would seem to have little to do with the delicacy and harmony of the Christmas Mystery. They are words that, if we take them seriously, would terrorise us because they herald the end of the things of this world and therefore the end those daily things to which we pay care and attention. They are words that remind us that the end of time, which is known to God alone, will come like a trap that will assail everyone who lives on the face of the earth. (Lk 21:35) What does this indicate to us? And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.(Lk 21:27) At that moment, everything that was just a "reflection" will fade to leave room for the true Light! The shadows will give way to Day, time will give way to Eternity, and our hearts will always remain exactly as they were at the moment before all this happened. If you were directed to the Light, you will be delivered from all your troubles and will belong only to Christ, in the eternal embrace of the Paradise. If, instead and God forbid that this is the case-, you had turned to the "reflection", rather than the Light source from where the reflection originated, when Son of Man appears, you will be covered in shadow and so will not welcome Christs merciful embrace. How do we prepare ourselves for this Day? How can we live this time of waiting without anguish or fear? How do we live this time enjoying the abundance of love of which the Apostle speaks: May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. (1 Thess 3:12) How do we live like this? Let us listen once more to the words of our Saviour: Be vigilant at all times and pray. (Lk 21:36) The Lord indicates the way: to be vigilant and to pray! Firstly, He calls us to be vigilant in every moment which means to say awake. In what way? Within the Church there are monks and nuns, men and women, who materially keep vigil by sacrificing hours of sleep to devote themselves to prayer in the middle of the night and thus intercede for all men. In addition, there are many precious hidden lives who offer their prayers and sufferings and are like flames of faith in the darkness that keep that kind of vigil to which Christ calls us. The one who keeps a vigil doesnt sleep, nor does he live a life that is enclosed in himself and therefore separated from reality. The one who keeps vigil lives without fleeing real life, even if, at times, this means welcoming sorrowful or undesirable events. Moreover, Christ shows us how to keep vigil: by praying! Praying helps us to look at the heart of reality, to the Mystery from whom all things were made and towards whom all things tend and so we make a vigil by imploring Him who comes to us. In prayer we encounter the Mystery that shows us His face and takes us by the hand. No artificial dream, or no pale reflection and no false concern can really match the intimate desire of our hearts. Let us keep vigilant and pray! In this way we will be counted amongst those that will hear the Angels words: I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a saviour has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. (Lk 2:10-11) Then we will be taken by the Shepherds to the manger in

Bethlehem where we can immerge our hearts in the contemplation of the Mystery made into a Child. With that Child we can grow and entrust ourselves to Him, without ever losing sight of Him until the day on which He will come in His Glory, with all the Saints, and take us to be with Him forever. Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was the first amongst all creatures to live this daily prayerful wait, for the grace not to become weighed down with the drunkenness and cares of this life (c.f Lk 21:34) but to become solid and holy before our God and Father, upon the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (c.f 1 Thess 3:13) Amen!

The Second Sunday of Advent Year C In this second Sunday of Advent, the Church seems to pull us ever closer towards the Incarnation the event that changed the entire course of human history. The Church directs us towards that event that is the foundation of a new history which now embraces humanity and that we will celebrate at Midnight Mass: the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord and Christ, who became Incarnate, died and rose for us! In today's Liturgy there are two ways in which the Church introduces us to the beginning of the mystery of Christmas. Firstly, by giving us the historical and political coordinates of the event we're talking about and, secondly, by enabling us to meet the one who was known as the voice. First of all, let us look at the historical and political coordinates of the event. St Luke refers to the emperor of the time, the governor of Judea, his tetrarchs and the High Priests of Israel. God does not overlook the general history of mankind, but enters into history, into a people and a place that is well established as we have already heard in Baruchs extraordinary prophecy. Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights; look to the east and see your children Gathered from the east and the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that they are remembered by God. Led away on foot by their enemies they left you: but God will bring them back to you borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones. (Bar 5:5) In this way we are progressively led to Gods extreme concreteness that is the Mystery of the Incarnation. God allowed Himself to be encountered in a particular historical moment to a particular people and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son of the Eternal Father, conceived of the Virgin Mary and born in Bethlehem in Judea. However, God did not work and does not work in this particular story through mans merit. In fact, there is nothing in man or his works that merits the coming of the Lord. There is not even an atom in the whole universe that is worthy of that grace! God comes down to us and in this concrete story because, in the mystery of His sovereign Liberty, He wanted it this way. Certainly, by electing a people unto Himself, the people of Israel, He also wanted to educate man to ask for His intervention, to implore His forgiveness, His grace but also, in the end, He intervened by an act of His absolute Free Will. Let us always look with infinite gratefulness to Jesus and ask Him that we might meet Him. He, the Baby in the manger at Bethlehem is for us, He is for every one of us! The immeasurable greatness of God is very selfevident the more that we accept and recognise that we do not merit Him, and that nothing in us merits so much! However, we await a favourable time to meet the Lord and we dont wait to merit the gift of Faith or a more ardent and profound Faith but, rather, we ask that He intervenes in our life. We ask that He shows us how to open our eyes to the fact that the Faith is a grace that He wants to give to us. In Baptism, he has definitively granted this grace and he also invites us to ask for it so that, in desiring it we can always bear greater fruit. In this weeks Liturgy, the Church also enables us to meet the voice. John the Baptist is the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the cousin of Jesus, who was elected by God to be the Prophet of His Son. We know that this voice will go out soon, in martyrdom, to make way for the One who is the Word, the Eternal Word of the Father, Christ the Lord. What does St John the Baptist say? What is his message? More than anything, he invites us to action: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Then, according to what exegesis calls passive theology this action will be fulfilled by God, Himself: The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth. God has decided not to save us without our help. He wanted nothing less than Marys yes in order to become man. He wanted to be announced, for the first time, by John, son of Zechariah, and then he called the Apostles, Priests, those instruments that would be necessary for His work of Salvation. He constituted the Church as the "place" where we meet Him, and where He asks for our personal

"yes" to bring about our salvation. Prepare the way of the Lord, [] the winding roads shall be made straight, [] and all shall see the salvation of God. Immaculate Mary is Gods resting place that was prepared to be the place where He became man and entered the world. May Mary, that humble creature that accepted what the Angel said, obtain the grace for us to implore and welcome that meeting with Christ and that radical transformation that this meeting brings about! Amen!