Second Sunday of Advent
One
Second Sunday of Advent
On the Second Sunday of Advent, the Church gives us John the Baptist as our guide to lead us to a deeper relationship with Jesus at Christmas.
Arguably the most important advice John gives is this, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”
That is John’s Advent plan, that Jesus increase in us and we decrease. Well, if Jesus is the program, then we should follow his example and do what he did. And the first thing Jesus did was take Mary for his mother and live in a close personal relationship with her as he grew up under her care - from the manger to Cana to the Cross. And one of the last things he did was invite us to do the same.
From the Cross, seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son. Then to the disciple, he said, 'This is your mother'. And from that moment the disciple took her into his home.”
The original Greek text ends with something much more profound than taking Mary into his physical home. The literal translation is that John took Mary into his soul. John invited Mary into his soul so that she would form Jesus in him. That is the beginning of the plan, ask Mary to come into your soul, to be the soul of your soul, as St. Louis De Montfort says.
Then practice being more aware of her presence, like she was with Jesus in Nazareth. Ask her to conduct all your affairs, turn to her often through the day, seeking her guidance and counsel. Then pay attention to what she prompts you to do and do it.
Two
If Jesus is the program, if He must increase in us, then we need to do what Jesus did. He spent time with the Father in prayer.
You may have a lot of important tasks, but by definition, you can only have one priority.
The priority for Jesus was his relationship with God His Father. That is why every scene of the Gospel either begins or ends with Jesus in prayer.
We say God is the most important thing and for that to be true we must make time in friendship with him in prayer the priority, the one thing, the most important thing we do every day. If we don’t then the fact is, God is not the priority, we are! But He must increase and I must decrease.
By prayer, we mean daily meditation, mental prayer. The Rosary is the way Mary asked us to start, but She wants us to go further, to spend significant time in silence to speak to God in an unfiltered way, straight from your heart, then read or listen to the Word of God, and think about it. Then form a simple, practical concrete resolution to do what He told you.
You can only have one priority. For Jesus, that was his relationship with the Father.
What is it for you?
Three
Jesus did the will of the Father. Because Jesus spent time with God in prayer He knew the will of the Father, he could do the will of the Father and he could accept the will of the Father.
So, ask God in prayer what He wants you to do. Then listen.
When people are wrestling with something I say to them, “Have you asked God what he wants you to do?” Usually, they say “no.” Ok, but you gotta ask. Or they do ask but they never enter into silence so that they can hear God speak to them.
Mother Teresa said, “In the silence of the heart God speaks.”
We worry but we don’t ask, and if we do ask we don’t listen in silence. If you seek the will of God in prayer, he will answer you in the silence of the heart.
Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.”
But we need to go to Him and ask. And without silence, we will never hear.
Four
Jesus accepted the will of God.
Jesus not only did the will of God, he accepted the will of God.
In the Garden of Gethsemene Jesus prayed, “Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will but Thy will be done.”
Thy will be done! That is the hardest thing to do, to accept what we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change.
It’s hard because we don’t trust God is our Father. Nothing can happen except what God wills or allows. And if he allows something you didn’t choose, you don’t like, or you can’t change, then God has allowed it for just one reason, to fill your soul with Jesus. Because we don’t trust God, we fight him, we block the entrance of Jesus. So, stop fighting and surrender.
Surrender does not mean irresponsibility or giving up. Surrender means this: Pray and think and plan and do all that is in your power; then for everything that is beyond your power, let God do what He wants to do.
Jesus had a joyous total abandonment to the goodwill of God the Father. And so must we.
Five
Finally, Jesus was not so busy that he had no time to listen.
Jesus had the whole world to save. Yet, time and again we find him in the Gospel listening to the needs of the individual who stood before him: the Father whose son was dying in Capernaum, the Woman at the Well, the man lying paralyzed by the Pool of Bethesda, on and on…probably to the annoyance of the Apostles.
What those in our lives need to know is that they have value and that we care. We can give them that by listening to them. The crazy thing is that they don’t want us to listen to them for hours on end. Ten minutes does wonders for those who depend on us.
Give time to listen, be attentive, show them you really care.
He must increase, and I must decrease.
That must be our program.
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