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Advent Time

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As we begin Advent, we venture into a journey of joy and hope. Advent season is a time to prepare and reflect upon the most extraordinary and unimaginable mystery of our salvation, that is, the anniversary of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus, something like 2020 years ago marking the fulfillment of God’s plan for man.

No matter how many times we think about the plan of salvation, what school of philosophy we resort to, what theological thinking and reasoning we use unless we rely on revelation, human thoughts and reasoning will stumble against the wall of the unknown and unacceptable. Only God can lend light to our human mind so that, enlightened by faith, it may understand or better accept without understanding God’s marvelous deeds. We must believe to understand and understand to believe.

Let, therefore, the light of faith guides our ways and minds during this extraordinary time of expectation and preparation to celebrate the mystery of mysteries and the fulfillment of the divine plan of salvation. It was He who planned the incarnation and human birth of the second person of the Trinity, intended for his glory and inseparable from the good of the human person he had created to show the wonders of his glory and will. He delights in sharing with those he has created and in accordance with his own plan the mystery of himself and the redemption of mankind. Were we to understand it with the slightest insight of divine wisdom, I strongly believe that our relationship with him and faithfulness to the Gospel would be that of conformity and unity with Him and with the whole human family in all its dimensions.

What generosity and what condescension is expressed in this divine action! However, mortal as we are, we fail to see and understand so that our actions will not be considered as ends in themselves but rather as intimately united to God’s action within us to prepare his ways and to allow Him to lead us into the deepest comprehension of the event we commemorate.

During the liturgical year, the Church presents to us the most important mysteries of God’s action towards man and the expression of his love beyond our grasp. Consequently, we are again and again reminded of such wonders and we are also invited to listen, to see, to accept, to conform our life, to love and to hope for all what the Father has planned for us and is incarnated in our life and being as sons of God.  

All this will be possible if we allow Him to come, to live and to transform what he has created for his glory because he continues to provide the means to help you and me to walk without faltering towards that goal and end for which we have been created and given the light of faith. 

The first preface of advent reads: “He assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh, and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago, and opened for us the way to eternal salvation, that, when he comes again in glory and majesty and all is, at last, made manifest, we who watch for that day may inherit the great promise in which now we dare to hope”.

Advent is a time of reflection, contemplation as well as an opportunity to allow ourselves to prepare adequately for what we are about to celebrate; thus, we must welcome the dynamism of grace which works with each one in his response to the call. “He is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his won who are zealous for good deeds” (cf. Titus 2,14).

Hence, we are encouraged by hope to be grateful, to be humble, to be ready to listen, to be generous and to be fully committed to answering, without reservations, to the promptings of the Spirit of God. Only then can we hear the words of the angel: “Glory to God in the highest of heaven and on earth and peace among those whom he favors!” (cf. Lk. 2, 14)”.   

If Jesus’ birth was not humanly understood by Mary and Joseph, it will continue to be a challenge for us. But as divine grace strengthened them in their human worries, let his light and wisdom bring us to surrender in the presence of this gift that is beyond the boundaries of generosity and a clear sign of how important we are to Him. Let us then have only one respond: AMEN! We are, therefore, here to seek and do his will!

Greetings and Merry Christmas to all the brothers in the Province.

 

Fr. Bonifacio García Solis, OP.

Prior Provincial