Celebrating the Seasons. Robert Atwell
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What then should Christians do? We ought to use the world, not become its slaves. And what does this mean? It means having, as though not having. So says the Apostle: ‘Beloved, the appointed time is short: from now on let those who have wives live as though they had none; and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing; and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with this world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. But I wish you to be without anxiety.’ The one who is without anxiety waits without fear until the Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear his coming? Do we not have to blush for shame? We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because he is not coming just now, he will not come at all. He will come, you know not when; and provided he finds you prepared, your ignorance of the time of his coming will not be held against you.
‘He will judge the world with equity and the peoples in his truth.’ What are equity and truth? He will gather together with him for the judgement his chosen ones, but the others he will set apart; for he will place some on his right, others on his left. What is more equitable, what more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy before the judge’s coming. Those, however, who were willing to show mercy will be judged with mercy. For it will be said to those placed on his right: ‘Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.’ And he reckons to their account their works of mercy: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink.’
What is imputed to those placed on his left side? That they refused to show mercy. And where will they go? ‘Depart into the everlasting fire.’ The hearing of this condemnation will cause much wailing. But what has another psalm said? ‘The just will be held in everlasting remembrance.’
Do you, because you are unjust, expect the judge not to be just? Or because you are a liar, will the truthful One not be true? Rather, if you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. Of whose possessions do you give, if not from his? If you were to give of your own, it would be largess but since you give of his, it is restitution. ‘For what have you that you have not received?’ These are the sacrifices most pleasing to God: mercy, humility, praise, peace, charity. Such as these, then, let us bring and, free from fear, we shall await the coming of the judge ‘who will judge the world in equity and the peoples in his truth’.
Saturday after Advent 1
A Reading from the Instructions of Columbanus
How blessed, how fortunate, are ‘those servants whom the Lord will find watchful when he comes’. Blessed is the time of waiting when we stay awake for the Lord, the Creator of the universe, who fills all things and transcends all things.
How I wish he would awaken me, his humble servant, from the sleep of slothfulness, even though I am of little worth. How I wish he would enkindle me with that fire of divine love. The flames of his love burn beyond the stars; the longing for his overwhelming delights and the divine fire ever burn within me!
How I wish I might deserve to have my lantern always burning at night in the temple of my Lord, to give light to all who enter the house of my God. Give me, I pray you, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son and my God, that love that does not fail so that my lantern, burning within me and giving light to others, may be always lighted and never extinguished.
Jesus, our most loving Saviour, be pleased to light our lanterns, that they may burn for ever in your temple, receiving eternal light from you, the eternal light, to lighten our darkness and to ward off from us the darkness of the world.
Give your light to my lantern, I beg you, my Jesus, so that by its light I may see that holy of holies which receives you as the eternal priest entering among the columns of your great temple. May I ever see you only, look on you, long for you; may I gaze with love on you alone, and have my lantern shining and burning always in your presence.
Loving Saviour, be pleased to show yourself to us who knock, so that in knowing you we may love only you, love you alone, desire you alone, contemplate only you day and night, and always think of you. Inspire in us the depth of love that is fitting for you to receive as God. So may your love pervade our whole being, possess us completely, and fill all our senses, that we may know no other love but love for you who are everlasting. May our love be so great that the many waters of sky, land and sea cannot extinguish it in us: for ‘many waters cannot quench love.’
May this saying be fulfilled in us also, at least in part, by your gift, Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
The Second Sunday of Advent
A Reading from the Letter to Diognetus
With goodness and kindness, like a king who sends his son, who is also a king, God sent God, the Word, among us. He sent him to save us through persuasion rather than violence, for there is no violence in God. He sent him to call us rather than to accuse us; he sent him to love us rather than to judge us.
No one has either seen God or made him known; it is God himself who has revealed himself. And he has manifested himself through faith, to which alone it is given to behold God. For God, the Lord and Creator of the universe, who made all things and arranged them in orderly fashion, has shown himself to be not only filled with love for us but also to be long-suffering in his dealings with us. Yes, he has always been, is, and will remain the same: kind, good, free from wrath, true, and the only one who is good; and he formed in his mind a great and ineffable plan which he communicated to his Son alone.
As long as he held and preserved his own wise counsel in concealment, he appeared to neglect us and to have no concern for us. But after he revealed through his beloved Son and manifested what things he had prepared from the beginning, he conferred every blessing all at once upon us, so that we should both share in his benefits and see and be active in his service. Who of us would ever have expected these things? God had thus disposed everything on his part with his Son, but until these last times he has permitted us to be borne along by unruly impulses, drawn away by the desire of pleasure and various lusts. This does not mean that God took the slightest delight in our sins but that he simply endured them; nor did he approve this time of iniquity, but rather in no way consented to it. Instead he was preparing for the present time of righteousness so that, convinced of our unworthiness to obtain life during that time on account of our faults, we might now become worthy of it through the effect of the divine goodness; and so that, after we had been shown incapable of entering into the kingdom of God by our own efforts we might become capable of doing so by the divine power.
He took on himself the burden of our iniquities, and he gave his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy one for transgressors, the blameless one for the wicked, the just one for the unjust, the incorruptible one for the corruptible, the immortal one for the mortal. Where except in the justice of God could we find that with which to cover our sins? By whom could we be justified – we who are wicked and ungodly – except by the only Son of God? What a wondrous exchange, operation, and unexpected benefits! The crime of so large number is covered over by the justice of a single just one.
In the past, God first needed to convince our nature of its inability to obtain life for itself. Now God has shown us the Saviour capable of saving even what was impossible to save. In these two ways, he willed to lead us to trust in his goodness, to esteem him as our nourisher, Father, teacher, counsellor, healer, and our wisdom, light, honour, glory, power and life.
Monday after Advent 2
A Reading from a homily of Origen
We read these words in the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ The Lord wishes to find a way by which he might enter your hearts and walk therein.