12. Second Thursday of Advent

Meditations no. 12 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

To be contemplative and apostolic, we need interior purification.

You are near at hand, Lord, and all your ways are truth. Christ, the Saviour, is coming. And to the question: Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? The liturgy replies with these other words from Scripture: I am your rescuer, the holy one of Israel.

No, there is no one else for us to wait for. He is the one who brings us the happiness we desire. He satisfies all the longings of our soul. And yet, he comes as a hidden treasure, as a precious pearl that has to be found. Hidden from the eyes of men, he will be born in a stable. A few shepherds will be the first to adore him. Their simplicity will lead them to seek out the manger, where they will surrender to divine love and adore him. Later Jesus will say: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

To find Christ and share in his friendship, interior purification is needed. We need a free heart, otherwise we will never be contemplatives. We can never let our hearts become attached to any person; to anyone at all. We are contemplatives… As soon as our hearts become attached, we lose our peace, our joy; or at least we are no longer contemplatives.

Interior purification: this is what enables us to be contemplatives, on fire with God’s love. We should be light and blazing fire - like the fire Moses was told to keep ever burning on the altar - to bring others to God, in accordance with our particular circumstances, each of us responding to Christ’s call: Venite ad me omnes; come to me all of you. Or to bring God to others, whenever the Lord is heard to say: Ecce sto ad ostium et pulso; behold, I stand at the door and knock.

Our Lord wants us to imbue all human activities with love for God. Contemplative souls in the middle of the world. Such are my children in Opus Dei. So must you always be, to assure your perseverance and fidelity to the vocation you have received. Then at every instant of our day we will be able to say sincerely: Loquere, Domine, quia audit servus tuus; speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

Wherever we happen to be - in the hubbub of the street and amid all human occupations: in the factory, at the university, on the farm, in the office or at home - we shall find ourselves engaged in simple filial contemplation, in an uninterrupted conversation with God.

For everything - people, things, tasks - offers us both an opportunity and a theme for continual conversation with God … My children, God asks of us only interior silence, the quieting of the selfish voice of the old man, not the silencing of the world. The world cannot, and should not, be silent for us.

Purity of heart: emptying it of disorderly affections and filling it with love for God.

Custody of the heart. That priest used to pray: “Jesus, may my poor heart be an enclosed garden; may my poor heart be a paradise wherein you dwell; may my Guardian Angel watch over it with a sword of fire and purify every affection before it enters. Jesus, seal my poor heart with the divine seal of your Cross.”

We have renounced human loves for the sake of Love. And a clear sign that our self-giving is sincere is constant interior mortification, which goes hand in hand with a good examination of conscience.

The weakness of our hearts does not alarm us. In fact, we are eager to discover the enemies that try to pull us down: worldly consolations that sap our courage; chains that disguise themselves as charity; small corners of the soul that are not properly dealt with in the fraternal talk. These may seem trifling matters, but what uneasiness they can lead to!

Keeping our hearts pure requires effort, even painful sacrifices at times. The remedy, however, is well within our reach. Your way, and mine, is a way of Love. My children, this poor heart of ours was born to love. If you do not give it a pure and noble love, it will take revenge and fill itself with wretched corruption and sensuality. Therefore, the hearts of my children must be filled with Love, Love with a capital L. Our goal is to empty our hearts of all wretched and disorderly affections and fill them to overflowing with love for God. As our Father exclaimed: I don’t ask you to take away my feelings, Lord, because I can use them to serve you: but I ask you to put them through the crucible.

Such is our goal; and to achieve it we trust not in our own strength, but in God’s mercy. He constantly encourages us: I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.” Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; you shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

Let us ask God for his grace to defeat those enemies that seek to undermine our purity of heart. St Jerome affirms that this gift was given to those who asked for it, to those who desired it, to those who strove to receive it. For everyone who asks, receives; everyone who seeks, finds; and to everyone who knocks, the door shall be opened.

To work and live and die as people in love: practical resolutions.

We are in love with Love. God does not want us to be dry, stiff and lifeless. He wants us to be soaked in his affection! In order to fill our hearts with divine love and uproot any attachment, we need constant prayer along with mortification: Lord, move our hearts so that … we may serve you with a pure soul. We want to work and live and die as people in love. So we ask with our Father: Lord, make me so much yours, that not even the holiest affections enter my heart except through your wounded Heart.

The Advent liturgy constantly urges us on with the news that the Lord is coming. We must prepare a broader path for him, a cleaner dwelling, a heart more docile and more truly his. But for a soul in love, waiting is not enough. Love impels us to go out and seek him.

As souls in love, we want our good desires to yield practical resolutions. Our prayer should be a constant outpouring of affection for our Lord, in union with the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph. We also meet Jesus in our Norms for always, in aspirations, acts of love and reparation, and spiritual communions. We tell him the same things all through the day: Don’t those in love always repeat the same things to each other? We tell him that we love him, that we are sorry for all our unfaithfulness, that we cannot wait to welcome him.

God will reward our generous efforts to draw closer to him. The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger, and rich in compassion. He will give us a free, pure heart, from which peace and joy will flow to all those around us.

To make certain that our prayer is heard, let us turn to our Lady, the Mother of Fair Love. After reminding her that we are under the protection of her most sweet Heart, we can follow our Father’s advice: You should tell our Lady, right now, without the sound of words, in the accompanied solitude of your heart: “O, my Mother, sometimes this poor heart of mine rebels; but if you help me…” And Mary will help you keep it clean and follow the way God has called you to. The Blessed Virgin will always make it easier for you to fulfil God’s will.