9. Second Monday of Advent

Meditations no. 9 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Faith in Jesus Christ, the Mediator and cause of our hope.

Advent is a time of hope. See, the King, the Lord of the earth is coming. He will take the burden of captivity from our shoulders. Christ our Saviour, awaited for so many centuries, is now coming as a new-born babe, a helpless child, and yet he holds within himself the almighty power of God! He will raise the dead, he will calm storms, he will forgive sins… And who can forgive sins but God only?

We need the light of faith to see in Jesus Christ, in whom we hope, a strong and faithful God, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, to suffer and die on a cross for our salvation. And so, since we have the Saviour himself as our bond, ours is no merely human hope. It is supernatural hope, built upon faith in him who has been constituted mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

We must learn to acquire the divine measure of things, never losing our supernatural outlook, and realizing that Jesus makes use also of our weaknesses to reveal his glory. So, whenever your conscience feels the stirrings of self-love, of weariness, of discouragement, or the weight of your passions, you must react immediately and listen to the Master, without letting the sad truth about our lives frighten us, because as long as we live, our personal failings will always be with us.

What security this gives us! What greater reason could we have for growing in hope than faith in Christ who is truly God? We say, along with the Apostle: Through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. By believing in Christ, we also trust in the divine fruitfulness of our mission. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees, the Church exhorts us in today’s First Reading. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come … He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

Let us thank God wholeheartedly for the bright light of faith, and let us take to heart our Father’s advice: Seek union with God and buoy yourself up with hope - that sure virtue - because Jesus will illumine the way for you with the gentle light of his mercy, even in the darkest night.

Remedies for temptations against faith and hope.

The knowledge the soul has through faith, although obscure and veiled, is nevertheless sure and certain knowledge. But at times this certainty may seem to wane; then the soul feels as though it is surrounded by darkness and threatened by despair. Such loss of hope may arise when our expectations are not met. Or it may come about because the road is long, and the difficulties, instead of diminishing, at times increase. This negative sentiment may also stem from the accumulation of failings which give the impression of sterility, making our many years of struggle seem in vain. Then we might be drawn to doubt whether we will ever attain the sanctity we used to desire so strongly.

In such a situation our supernatural outlook, which formerly filled us with peace, may become dimmed, and we may begin to see, and judge, and react, in a purely human way. A person with piety, our Father forewarned, can have his poor heart in darkness; this darkness can last a few moments, several days, a season, or even years. Then is the moment to cry out: Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to thee do I cry all the day. For thou, O Lord, art good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on thee.

Sometimes darkness results from a lack of response on our part, which leads to God’s bright light becoming obscured. But as our Founder reassures us, if we were to become blind for a time, it may not be our own fault: God may want to use this to make us holier and more effective. Whatever the case, we have to live by faith, and make it more theological, less dependent on reasons other than God himself. As St Thomas says: A person with scant learning is far surer of something he hears from an expert than he is of any insight of his own. Thus anyone is far surer of what he hears from the infallible God than of what he sees with his own fallible reason.

The more clearly we know our personal limitations and the difficulties that face us along the road to sanctity, the more need we have of the virtue of hope. We should humbly ask God to strengthen our hope; and we should make it the topic of our prayer. What needs to be constantly borne in mind is that our hope does not rest on our meagre efforts, or on what we understand to be feasible. Rather it is based on the almighty and infinite mercy of God, and the immense fatherly Love that moved him to offer his only-begotten Son for our salvation.

In te, Domine, speravi. In you, Lord, have I hoped. Along with human resources, I added my prayer and my cross to the balance. And my hope was not in vain, nor will it ever be. Non confundar in aeternum.

The Confidence: a specific remedy for these temptations.

Despite having the guarantee that Jesus Christ will always be ready to help us when things get harder, and despite the means he has given us to sustain our hope, nevertheless God sometimes allows us to face difficult circumstances in which it is not easy to reason supernaturally. Then the thoughts that had once fired us with hope and buoyed up our faith no longer satisfy the soul, which finds itself overcome, as it were, by a kind of spiritual blindness. Then is the moment to be more docile than ever and to let ourselves be guided, fully accepting God’s will which is shown to us through the things that the Directors indicate and advise.

In such cases, God has given us a sure remedy: the fraternal chat, which we go along to in a spirit of complete sincerity. If we are docile and let ourselves be guided, and try to love God’s will, we will receive the all-powerful assistance of grace, for God raises us up in the very thing in which he humbles us. If the soul lets itself be led, if it obeys, and wholeheartedly accepts purification, if it lives by faith, it will see things in an unimagined light, and afterwards think with amazement that till then it had been blind from birth. Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

We should see Christ in the person who listens to us to help us. Jesus will repeat in our lives the miracle of the man born blind. Our Father insists: Don’t be frightened. Don’t let anything worry you. If you are sincere, everything will work out. At times, one can go through a period - for months or even years - like a blind man. But if one obeys, all the light of heaven will come and everything will turn out well.

If we are sincere and allow ourselves to be guided, the darkness will disappear, and hope will be restored to our soul. When we set aside our own judgement, God rewards our humility by giving us extraordinary light. The night is far gone, the day is at hand, bringing a radiant light, a purified dawn. Then we shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.

During Advent, as we confidently await the Saviour’s coming, we ask our Mother, the Blessed Virgin, to help us always approach our weekly talk in a spirit of humility, faith and trusting abandonment. Holy Mary, our Hope, pray for us!