Advent With John of the Cross
\Advent With the John of the Cross
ONE
St. John of the Cross, whose feast we celebrate today writes; “The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart.”
Jesus was not born in the Inn in Bethlehem because there was no room. Jesus was born in a cave because it was empty.
If there would have been room in the Inn, then he would have been born there. Too bad for the Inn-keeper – that family would still be making a lot of money today from pilgrims coming to the birth-place of Jesus at his Inn.
See, it was a very bad long term business decision not to make room for Jesus.
But this is the way we operate. We forsake long-term gains for short-term because we do not make room for Jesus in our day. Learn the lesson from the poor Innkeeper. Make more room for Jesus each day by setting time aside to be alone and in silence with him in prayer.
Advent is the time to make more room for God.
TWO
The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart.
That which takes up the most room in our soul is pride.
Pride is all the ways we try to make ourselves relevant or valuable by our achievements. But that leaves no room for God.
The first step to make room for God is to begin to see that your achievements do not make you valuable.
Your personal worth is received from God. We receive His image when we are conceived, and we receive His divinity when we are baptized. Our value is to be a child of God and that is received, not earned.
Humility is knowing our worth is a gift from God – His image and His divinity given to us.
THREE
Once we have done all that is in our power to make room for God, then God takes over and He carves out a bigger space in us.
John of the Cross calls this the Dark Night. The Dark Night is when God begins to break in, clearing space, making more room for him to enter.
The Dark Night comes in many forms – they are tailor made. You will know them when you meet them by the things you did not choose, do not like and cannot change.
The Dark Night may come in the form of a profession or job that you feel lacks meaning but you have to stick it out for a while longer, maybe a long while;
It’s persevering as a stay at home mom with little kids when you just want to run;
It’s your own chronic illness or that of a spouse, or a child that, short of a miracle, is not going to change.
God allows these tailor-made experiences because He knows exactly how to make more room in our soul so that we may receive even more of Him, a greater share in His divine life.
FOUR
How should we respond to the Dark Night?
With Faith. Faith is to believe what God has told us rather than what our feelings tell us. When we experience difficult or painful things, our feelings tell us that God has abandoned us.
Faith tells us the opposite. It is dark, not because God has not abandoned us. It is dark because God, who is pure Light, is flooding in. God is so close that He is blinding us. God is there and He is working by the evidence of the Dark Night. So, live by reality and not by feelings. God is there. He is flooding your soul and working all things for good.
FIVE
The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart.
Advent is the time to make more room in our life for God.
The best way to begin is to set aside more time alone and in silence in prayer.
Then instead of killing yourself by trying to make yourself valuable and relevant by your achievements, receive your worth from God – His divine life in you.
Finally, when we experience some dark night, don’t live by feelings. Know by faith that God is allowing this to carve out more room for him to enter your life.