“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths”

ON this First Sunday of Advent, we are reminded of these words of the Prophet Isaias as recorded in the gospel of St. Matthew (3,3). These are words that should always be in our mind and, in fact, made as a guiding principle of our whole life. And the simple reason is that our life here on earth is actually a journey toward our final destination in heaven where Christ, the fullness of our humanity, waits for us even as he also always with us. 

 We should constantly check ourselves to see if we are progressing toward that destination and if we are still on the right road. We have to be wary of our strong tendency to be seduced and deceived by earthly and temporal goals even if we feel we appear to be doing great in pursuing them, reminding us of what St. Augustine once said: “You are running well; see that you do not run out of the way.” 

 Let us foster the awareness of this basic truth about ourselves and about our life here on earth. We need to encourage everyone to have a clear and strong sense of purpose, and to know how to pursue it given our human condition and all the means that God has given us. 

 We therefore cannot overemphasize this basic need of ours to make plans and strategies. If we have to develop ourselves as we should, if we have to be truly productive and fruitful, if we have to take advantage of everything in life, whether good or bad, to attain our ultimate goal, then we have to plan and strategize our moves. 

 Making plans and strategies may require some time and effort, but it’s an investment that is all worthwhile. The little time and effort required can actually multiply our time and make our efforts more productive at the end of the day. It’s like the little rudder that St. James talked about in his letter. (cfr. 3,4) Our plans and strategies can have the power to accomplish great things, like a little rudder giving direction to a big boat. 

 We should make it habit everyday to check from time to time to see if we are progressing properly, if we are still on the right road, if there are surprises and other obstacles that need to be resolved. 

 The ideal condition of our life should be that we always get the sensation that we are going well in pursuing our real goal. We have to make each day a microcosm of how we pursue the ultimate goal of our whole life. 

 Thus, at the end of the day, we should make a regular accounting of how the day went by making a thorough examination of conscience. That exercise should be like a rehearsal of that time when we will face Christ on judgment day. It would help us to be properly prepared to face him, avoiding unpleasant surprises. 

 Then as we go to bed, let’s understand it as a rehearsal of our ultimate rest in heaven. We should already forget, at least for that period of rest and sleep, all our daily concerns so that we can practice how to be finally united with God in total bliss. So, we need to learn how to leave everything behind, which is what will happen when we die. 

 To be sure, this practice will make our life here on earth most meaningful, since we would live it according to God’s purpose for it.

We have the highest dignity in the whole universe

WE should be most aware of this fundamental truth about ourselves. It should make us most happy and most unwilling to exchange it for something else that would undermine it. No amount of worldly pleasure, fame and wealth can surpass and outshine it. 

 And the simple reason is that we have been made in God’s image and likeness, sharers of his life and of his very nature. God shares his life and his very self with us, and it is just up to us to correspond to that truth by following God’s will and ways, instead of just following our own will. 

 Sad to say, we are notorious for doing the opposite. Instead of following God’s will, we prefer to simply do ours. It’s like we make ourselves our own God which is a very strong temptation to us since we usually think that our freedom entitles, nay, commands us to be simply on our own, guided only by our own estimation of things. 

 We need to strengthen our self-awareness of this basic truth about ourselves, recognizing our real worth and value as a child of God who gives us everything to be truly his child. 

 For this, we need to grow spiritually by deepening our relationship with God through prayer and continuing study of our faith so we would know God more and more, so that by so doing we also would know ourselves better. That’s simply because how God is should also be how we should be. 

 It may be incredible and hard to accept, but that who we really are. Indeed, for us to be able to accept this truth and live by it, we need to be truly humble, to continually deny ourselves since we always have the tendency to simply follow what we think instead of what our Christian faith teaches us. 

 Of course, to become more and more like God as we should, we need to develop virtues that would facilitate our unity and identification with God. To mention a few, aside from humility, we need to be compassionate, kind, magnanimous, patient. 

 We should realize that the most important duty we have is to earnestly know and fulfill the will of God for us at every moment. We need to train ourselves for this duty, since we all know that we always tend to do our own will rather than God’s will. 

 This is a basic truth that we need to spread around more widely and abidingly, since it is steadily and even systematically forgotten and, nowadays, even contradicted in many instances. We need to inculcate this truth to children as early as when they can understand and appreciate it. Then let’s give them the example of how it is lived. 

 God’s will is the source of everything in the universe. The whole of creation in all its existence, unity, truth, goodness and beauty starts from God’s will and is maintained by it. The entire range and scope of reality—be it material or spiritual, natural or supernatural, temporal or eternal—is “contained” there, not only theoretically but in vivo. 

 We need to pound it hard into our mind and heart that we need live by God’s will if we truly want to keep our dignity as children of God! We have to be wary of the many things that would now desensitize us from this need as we are prodded to go full-blast into self-indulgence.

Deeds, deeds, deeds, more than words and intention

IN the gospel, we are reminded that we should not just be good hearers of the word of God, but rather its doers. (cfr. Mt 7,21.24-27) In fact, we have to convert God’s word into our very own life, since that’s where we can start and keep our sharing with God’s life and nature as we are meant to do and be. 

 By acting on God’s word, we would actually be living by God’s will, which is what is most important to us. It’s not just following our will which is, of course, indispensable to us. Otherwise, we would be undermining our very own freedom and our humanity itself. Whatever we do is done because we want it. It should be a fruit of our freedom. 

 But what is most important is to conform our will to God’s will, which is even more indispensable to us. Otherwise, we sooner or later would destroy our freedom and our humanity itself, since God is the very author and the very lawgiver of our freedom and our humanity. 

 This is a basic truth that we need to spread around more widely and abidingly, since it is steadily and even systematically forgotten and, nowadays, even contradicted in many instances. We need to inculcate this truth to children as early as when they can understand and appreciate it. Then let’s give them the example of how it is lived. 

 God’s will is the source of everything in the universe. The whole of creation in all its existence, unity, truth, goodness and beauty starts from God’s will and is maintained by it. The entire range and scope of reality—be it material or spiritual, natural or supernatural, temporal or eternal—is “contained” there, not only theoretically but in vivo. 

 We have to learn to live by God’s will that is shown to us, thanks to God, by Christ, the fullness of divine revelation, who left us with his word and the sacraments in the Church. 

 What is God’s will for us? In general, it is to love him and our neighbor. It is to love the way Christ himself has loved us. God’s will is that we continually pray, so we get in contact with him in a direct and intimate way. We have to know him more and more by reading the gospel and following his teaching, and developing a real love for him, complete with feelings. 

 We should just learn to convert God’s word into action. St. Paul has something very relevant to say about this. “Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” (Rom 2,13) St. James says something similar: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (1,22) 

 Christ himself lived by this principle, even at the expense of his own life. “I do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me...” (Jn 8,28) And in the agony in the garden, he expressed that most eloquent submission to his Father’s will, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Lk 22,42) 

 We need to understand that our whole life is a matter of conforming ourselves to God’s will, the very seat of our ultimate identity as persons and children of God. This would involve the stages of knowing that will, believing it, then professing it and putting it into action. In short, receiving our faith, then turning it into life itself.