Advent Reflection, First Sunday, 2016

When you write a column for the Cathedral bulletin, it has to be submitted in advance for printing purposes. The good thing about posting that same column to a blog is the post is almost instantaneous. This gives you an opportunity to make any last minute changes to the post. After my adventures of yesterday, I have decided to amend my reflection for the first week of Advent before posting it to my blog.

Yesterday, I was with a group of Cathedral parishioners on a pilgrimage to Grand Coteau. After the early morning clouds burned off, the day ended up being a beautiful day of sunshine and cool air. Upon our arrival at Grand Coteau, we were able to see where St. John Berchmans appeared to a dying Mary Wilson. Mary was miraculously cured of her disease and this became the miracle used for the canonization of John Berchmans. Msgr. LaCaze celebrated the Mass for us at the Shrine.  We felt both the reverence of the shrine and the joy that comes from being with each other. All those on the pilgrimage agreed this would be a wonderful event to recall when the Heart of St. John Berchmans was at the Cathedral. (Click on Picture to right for more information)

We say and hear that Advent is a time of preparation. We are to focus on both the coming birth of Christ and his second coming. Grand sounding words but do we take them seriously?  Looking back on our pilgrimage, I will admit to a little pride in my calmness and clarity during an off-road adventure our bus took.  Visiting the shrine and the off-road adventure on the return trip caused me to wonder if I do take my Advent preparation seriously enough. Was I ready to be gathered at God's right hand as we hear in the Collect (Opening prayer of the Mass)?

The Collect from the first Sunday of Advent also tells us “to run forth to meet your Christ”.  We need to be running to the Lord. God is here just waiting for us to acknowledge his love for us. Once we wake up to God's love for us then we should have a deep desire for it. That desire will cause us to figuratively run to the Lord.

How do we figuratively “run forth” to our God? This is done by returning God's love and is shown by the righteous deeds we do for others. We give others the honor due as one created by God. We treat them with the respect that is deserved as sons and daughters of God's love. Our goal then should be to live each day of our life in such a way that if we knew today was to be our last day on this earth, we would not want to change anything about our day.  If we are truly running forth to the meet our Christ then we are running to the heavenly Kingdom.

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.

Praying the Rosary

My Rugged Rosary

The rosary is a prayer that gives us the opportunity to reflect on Jesus and our own lives.  Last Friday I was reciting the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary when I came to the third Sorrowful Mystery; Crowning with the Thorns. I reflected on the Roman guard pushing that crown of thorns onto the head of Jesus and the pain it caused when suddenly I saw myself as the guard. I was the one pushing down the crown of thorns. It was a painful thought but I did not want to leave it as I knew it had meaning to me.  As I continued to pray the ten Hail Marys, I realized it was my sins that pushed down that crown of thorns.  These sins occur when I do not return the love God has shown to me.

I moved on to the next mystery; Carrying the Cross.  I continued to reflect on the pain caused by my sins but now I also thought of Jesus voluntarily taking up the cross.  I thought of the cross Jesus carried.  I began to see the cross not being made of wood but being made out of the sins of the world.

Finally I came to the last sorrowful mystery; The Crucifixion.  In my reflecting on the crucifixion, I saw Jesus the loving Son, sacrificing his life for my sins.  I realized it was my sins that made necessary the crucifixion.

The praying of the rosary opened up my eyes to a new way to look at the death of Jesus on the cross.  My sins do cause pain.  God knows my sins even if I do not recognize them.  My sins make the thorns cut deeper into Jesus.  My sins make the cross a little heavier.  My sins make the death of Jesus a little more painful.  I realized my sins have to do this!

The sacrifice of Jesus is for all mankind and for all of time. The pain of his sacrifice must include the sins that I commit today.  Understanding the sacrifice of Jesus in this way opened up a deep sense of love in me.  I felt God's love for me through the sacrifice his Son made for all.  The sins of mankind; past, present and future have been forgiven by this one sacrifice.

Can I come close to imagining a love this strong?  God allowed his Son to endure the suffering and pain caused by my sins of today so I could be forgiven by a sacrifice of love made two thousand years ago.