Friday, December 05, 2008

"Holiness does not go out of fashion"

1) Eucharistic Adoration, tonight, 7-8 pm, SAA Church. Please join us!

2) Holy Day of Obligation: Monday, Dec 8, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and an HDO. Masses at St Andrew’s are 8:30 am, 10 am, and 7:30 pm
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The following is (via Zenit.org) Pope Benedict XVI’s homily Sunday at the Roman Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, at the closing liturgy of the jubilee year commemorating the 1750th anniversary of the Spanish deacon and martyr.

"In this beginning of Advent, what better message to receive from St. Lawrence than that of holiness?" asked the Holy Father. The spiritual message of Advent, he said, "points us already to the Lord's glorious coming at the end of history."

"Celebrating the Eucharist," continued the Pontiff, "we proclaim in fact that he has not withdrawn from the world and has not left us alone and, though we cannot see or touch him, as is the case with material and sensible realities, he is with all of us and among us; what is more, he is in us, because in this way he can attract to himself and communicate his life to every believer who opens his heart to him."

Thus, Advent recalls the Lord's first coming, his final return, and his presence among us now in the life of the Church, he said. "This awareness, dear brothers and sisters, nourished by listening to the Word of God, should help us to see the world with different eyes, to interpret the different events of life and history as words that God addresses to us, as signs of his love that assure us of his closeness in every situation." He added that as a preparation for the Lord's final coming in glory, Advent becomes a "time of waiting and hope, a privileged time of listening and reflection, allowing ourselves to be guided by the liturgy."

Come, Lord
Remembering the invocation of the early Christian community, "Come Lord Jesus," Benedict XVI exhorted his audience to make it "also our constant aspiration, the aspiration of the Church of every age, which longs and prepares for the encounter with its Lord." The Holy Father recalled the first reading from Isaiah, with the image of "a tender and merciful Father, who takes care of us in every circumstance because we are the work of his hands." This Father took the initiative to send his son to redeem us, added the Pontiff.

"Before so great a mystery of love, may our gratitude rise spontaneously and our invocation be more confident."

Turning his focus to St. Lawrence, the Pope commented: "His solicitude for the poor, his generous service to the Church in the area of social welfare and charity, his fidelity to the pope, which led him to want to follow him to the supreme test of martyrdom and the heroic testimony of his blood, spilt a few days later."

"He repeats to us that holiness," affirmed Benedict XVI, "namely, going out to meet Christ who comes continually to visit us, does not go out of fashion, on the contrary, with the passing of time it shines in a luminous way and manifests man's constant tension toward God."

The Holy Father encouraged his listeners to make "a constant commitment to evangelization through charity. May Lawrence, heroic witness of Christ crucified and risen, be for each one an example of docile adherence to the divine will so that, as we have heard the Apostle Paul remind the Corinthians, we also live in such a way as to be found 'irreproachable' in the day of the Lord."

Concluding with a reflection on Sunday's Gospel, he focused on Christ's command to "watch." "To watch," explained the Pontiff, "means to follow the Lord, to choose what he has chosen, to love what he has loved, to conform one's own life to his; to watch means to spend every moment of our time on the horizon of his love without letting ourselves be overcome by the inevitable daily difficulties and problems. So did St. Lawrence, so must we; and we ask the Lord to give us his grace so that Advent will stimulate all of us to walk in that direction.”

1 Comments:

At 9:33 PM, Blogger fran said...

Here is a story of a child who lives on the horizon of God's love ( maybe even beyond it )and does not let daily difficulties overcome him.

A few days ago, I met a 5-year old little boy at my place of work and spent a short period of time with him. This child had apparent hand, leg and feet malformations. Each of his hands had only four fingers and each hand curved somewhat inward. He also walked with an unusual gait and was considerably smaller in size for his age.

In the course of our time together I had to take him through a building and down 2 sizable sets of stairs. On our way down, I noticed that he used his hands as hooks almost, wrapping them around the bannister and lowering himself from one step to the next.

Before going back up, he and a classmate began running towards the steps, became entangled in one another and fell to the ground. Still on the ground, he turned to his friend and asked if he was okay. The horizon of God's love.

As he went up the first set of steps he started off rather fast, and then began to slow down considerably. By the second set, it looked as though he was struggling and might fall backwards. I asked if he needed my help. His answer? "No. I am climbing a mountain."

Those words struck me as not only profound, but also prophetic. Certainly this child will have a number of "mountains" to climb as he goes through life with inevitable challenges. Living on the horizon of God's love, though, I doubt he will let them get in his way.

And my little friend's name? Cristian.

 

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