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The Feast of the Holy Family (Luke 2:41-52)
Today’s Gospel presents the honourable example of the Blessed Virgin Mary in her response to Jesus’ odd remark “Why were you looking for Me?” (Lk 2:49). Rather than question the mysterious ways of God, Mary accepted them with humility, not fully understanding, yet simply pondering them in her heart and trusting that their meaning would be revealed to her in due time.
Meditating on the mysteries of God is the only way to reach any understanding of His unsearchable ways. St. Faustina was in awe over His Incarnation and wrote: “That You became a brother to humans, not to angels, is a miracle of the unfathomable mystery of Your mercy. (…) My heart flutters with joy to see how good God is to us wretched and ungrateful people. And as a proof of His love, He gives us the incomprehensible gift of Himself in the person of His Son. Throughout all eternity we shall never exhaust that mystery of love. O mankind, why do you think so little about God being truly among us?” (Diary 1584).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, grant me the grace during this holy season of Christmas to contemplate with wonder the mysteries of Your incarnation and Your life in the family in Nazareth. Transform my hardened heart. Amen.
Christmas Day (Luke 2:1-14)
No human being could ever have thought up such miserable conditions for a birth—on an icy cold night in a stinky stable where the only water was in the animals’ troughs. Yet God Himself desired in this way to amend for the tragedy brought on by sin. He took on our human nature, becoming a tiny baby, so that He could reach out His itty-bitty hand to us. How could we possibly not bow down before such a tremendous mystery? Let us listen to the words of St. Faustina’s Diary (1584):
“May Your mercy be praised without cease. That You became a brother to humans, not to angels, is a miracle of the unfathomable mystery of Your mercy. All our trust is in You, our first-born Brother, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. My heart flutters with joy to see how good God is to us wretched and ungrateful people. And as a proof of His love, He gives us the incomprehensible gift of Himself in the person of His Son. Throughout all eternity we shall never exhaust that mystery of love. O Lamb of God, I do not know what to admire in You first: Your gentleness, Your hidden life, the emptying of Yourself for the sake of man, or the constant miracle of Your mercy, which transforms souls and raises them up to eternal life. Although You are hidden in this way, Your omnipotence is more manifest here than in the creation of man.”
Prayer: Merciful Baby Jesus, my King, help me to understand the greatness of the gift You have given us in taking on our human nature. Thank You for loving me unconditionally, in spite of my sinfulness. Create in me a pure heart, where You will always be able to find a worthy resting place for Your little head. Amen.
The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Luke 1:39-45)
Today’s Gospel is about faith. The Bible calls faith “confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see” (Heb 11:1). St. Elizabeth blesses Mary for having blindly trusted in God’s words to her, even though they made absolutely no sense in light of the natural laws He Himself had placed in action in the world. Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah, had not shown such faith when the angel Gabriel announced to him that his aged wife was finally going to bear a son. Would I have believed such a thing? Am I truly convinced of Gabriel’s words to Mary: “Nothing will be impossible for God”?
One day during adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Faustina received the grace to see Jesus physically present in the Host. She heard Him say: “What you see in reality, these souls see through faith. Oh, how pleasing to Me is their great faith! You see, although there appears to be no trace of life in Me, in reality it is present in its fullness in each and every Host. But for Me to be able to act upon a soul, the soul must have faith. O how pleasing to Me is living faith!” (Diary 1420).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, I believe in You with all my heart. Increase my faith. Give me genuine, living faith like Mary’s and St. Faustina’s. May my whole life give witness to my belief that You truly can do all things. Amen.
The Third Sunday of Advent (Luke 3:10-18)
Again this week we hear John the Baptist crying out in the desert for us to renounce sin and reform our lives, to stop sinning and start practicing works of mercy. Now is the time of mercy, for one mightier than John is coming, to gather the wheat into His barn and to burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. Do we want Him to judge us as wheat or as chaff? As sheep or as goats? We should be consciously living out our faith, constantly putting love of neighbour into action, so as never to hear those terrible words, “Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink…” (Mt 25:41-42).
Jesus told St. Faustina: “If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy” (Diary 1317).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, help me to imitate You in showing mercy to my neighbour. Don’t let me ever try to make excuses for myself, because You have made it clear—the way I act toward my neighbour is the way I act towards You. Teach me true love of neighbour. I trust in You! Amen.
The Second Sunday of Advent (Luke 3:1-6)
That voice crying in the desert some 2000 years ago is speaking today, also, to each one of us. Preparing for Christmas is not about shopping, decorating and baking, but it’s about purifying ourselves from sin, about cleaning out the manure from the stable of our hearts and putting the fresh hay of God’s grace into the manger to welcome our Baby King. If we don’t make any special efforts at preparing our hearts, how can we expect to experience the joy of His coming when Christmas arrives?
St. Faustina prepared herself for every meeting with the Lord Jesus in Holy Communion. One day she wrote: “Today I prepare for the Coming of the King. What am I, and who are You, O Lord, King of eternal glory? O my heart, are you aware of who is coming to you today? Yes, I know, but—strangely—I am not able to grasp it. Oh, if He were just a king, but He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Before Him, all power and dominion tremble…” (Diary 1810).
Yet we have no need to fear or to tremble at His Coming, for He comes as a helpless infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, as Love incarnate.
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, help me during these days of Advent to recognize my most hidden sins and to truly repent of them. I want to welcome You into a pure heart on Christmas Day. Amen.
The First Sunday of Advent (Luke 21:25-28, 34-36)
This First Sunday of Advent, as we begin our preparation for the coming of Jesus, the readings speak to us about the end of the world. Although we may think we aren’t yet living in end times, we actually are, each one of us. When my life on earth comes to an end, that will be, for me, the end of the world. So, regardless of who I am, I need to be ready at every moment to meet the Lord, who will come like a thief in the night. We can never be totally sure of our salvation, when the possibility of falling away from God still exists.
St. Faustina understood that the grace of God can never be presumed upon or taken for granted, since all of us are subject to human weakness. Every grace we receive needs to be guarded and nurtured. St. Faustina, after having received a very special grace of chastity, wrote:
“Although God has confirmed me in this virtue, I am, however, constantly on the watch and fear even my own shadow, but this is only because I have come to love God intensely. This grace from God was given to me precisely because I am the weakest of all people; this is why the Almighty has surrounded me with His special mercy” (Diary 1098-99).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, I thank You for all of the graces You have bestowed on me. Keep me vigilant and never let me separate myself from You by sin. Amen.