Sunday, December 18, 2016

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Salesian Sunday Reflection

Fourth Sunday of Advent
Today’s Gospel reminds us that like St. Joseph, we must have confidence in God’s plan for us. God has a plan for us that is greater than our own. St. Francis de Sales notes:

In today’s Gospel, Joseph sees that Mary is with child. Knowing that it was not his child, he was ready to divorce her. But the angel revealed to Joseph that the Holy Child was to be Our Savior. With great peace and serenity of mind, Joseph accepted the unexpected event that befell him. Our confidence in God ought to be like St. Joseph’s.

The foundation of our trust is not in our own self, but in God. While we may change, God remains always gentle and merciful when we are weak and imperfect, as well as when we are strong and perfect. When we have absolute trust in Our Lord, we are like an infant on the breast of its mother. The child just lets itself be carried and led wherever the mother wants to take it. Similarly, we ought to have such confidence in letting ourselves be carried when we love God’s will in all that happens to us.

Holy confidence in the goodness of God is the life of the human spirit. As we grow in love with God, we may experience the contractions and pangs of spiritual childbirth. Yet, in the midst of our troubles, Our Savior will guide us on our way no matter how difficult it may be. Let us think of the words of our gentle Savior: “When a woman gives birth she is in great distress, but after the birth she forgets the suffering of the past because a child is born to her.” Our souls ought to give birth to the dearest Child that one could wish for. It is Jesus whom we must form and bring to birth in ourselves. The Child is well worth whatever we endure. How happy we would be if we devoted all our efforts to accomplishing God’s will for us. We would obtain from God’s goodness all that we could possibly desire and need, a new invigorating life. A holy rebirth in Christ!

(Adapted from the writings of
St. Francis de Sales)

This letting go and submission to God's Will is the hardest part of the Christian project for many since it seems to imply passivity, as in the image of the infant being carried by its mother. Yet the true life of the Christian, and more broadly of the Progressive, is active cooperation with and participation in the Will of God, that is to say Good, Peace, etc. As the saying is, we are - or must be - the good and peace we seek.

So as we prepare in this last week of Advent to welcome the Christ Child, let us reflect on what He brings and what He demands of us. We need not be Christians to find these things in our hearts or to see the desperate need for them in our world.

12 comments:

  1. I have long been of the opinion that the inevitable decline of the US empire has been very poorly handled; handled well, it could have been a slow, gradual and relatively painless decline of hundreds of years. I fear that the process is now changing from poorly handled to farcical or disastrous, and that what could have been a soft landing will be either a debacle or a disaster. We have needed a legendary statesman--a Metternich, a Richelieu, a Bismarck, a Castlereagh. How can it be that we have not produced one? Is it the result of our chaotic changes of government?

    Be that as it may, yesterday what is presumably the last flock of white pelicans stopped by in the river bottom on their way to their wintering grounds in Southern and Baja California; they must have been driven from the Prairie Provinces by seriously bad weather.

    Naomi came home today, will stay through New Year's.

    --Alan

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    1. Hurrah for Naomi being home!

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    2. Alan, it turns out you and John McCain are on the same page on the issue of the unraveling of American democracy.

      http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/18/politics/john-mccain-russia-hacking/index.html

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    3. Considering the weather here in the almost-upper Midwest, I can easily see the pelicans being driven out of Canada's Prairie Provinces.

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    4. While I am somewhat more optimistic than you on the whole, I think a bit part of the problem is that the American public does not understand foreign policy. Elections are fought on domestic issues; so far foreign policy is addressed at all, it is in an oversimplified, black-and-white manner. This does not lead to election of leaders with a strong foreign policy agenda. And also does not lead to the selection of Secretaries of State on the basis of their grasp of global politics.
      I think Bill Fulbright, were he alive today, could manage things like the statesmen you mentioned. But I don't see a Fulbright on today's scene.

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    5. There's no one in public life today who could even understand what Fullbright was talking about. *sigh*

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  2. I'm grateful for Advent offering us brightening light, right when we need it most. Technically, the white candle, which is the Christ candle, isn't lit until Christmas, but I'll take it now!!

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  3. listener--Senator McCain and I are not on all the same wavelengths, but I respect him and it is not surprising that we should agree on certain things. The Great Orange Draft Dodger can go suck an egg.

    Bill--it occurs to me that the european countries that have produced great foreign ministers also had very real present threats on their borders; in other words, foreign affairs were of great, immediate and obvious importance to them and their citizens. Here we have historically been rather isolated.

    I finished reading Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency; it is certainly not the sort of story that wrote itself, from beginning to end, with need of careful advance planning. It is tempting to read it again, making notes along the way.

    --Alan

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it, Alan. Nothing wrong with reading it again. Don't forget, though, you still have The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul to look forward to.

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    2. Oops--" with need of careful advance planning." should read " withOUT need of careful advance planning."

      --Alan

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  4. Will be out during the middle of the day tomorrow and probably won't have much time in the morning. My apologies for the bad timing, but you'll have to fend for yourselves on news on the Electoral College for most of the day.

    I did set up a somber post for tomorrow though. And as soon as I can, I'll get on the EC story.

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