3rd Saturday of Advent
Song of Songs 2:8-14; Luke 1:39-45
We are all familiar with this verse taken from the Book of Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). The unity of the Godhead is shared by a Trinity of persons in a communion of love. This dynamic love is generative and nurturing. God created the world out of love and keeps it in existence as an expression of love. When God created man and women in His image and likeness, He made them to give themselves in love to one another in love and to be loved in return. It is in this dynamic of loving and being loved that God made us with a passionate longing for unity with the Trinity. Filled with longing, the Beloved looks to the mountains for the approach of the Bridegroom. With her, we cry out: COME LORD JESUS!
During the final days of Advent, the Church encourages us to long for deeper communion with Christ. “Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you” (St. Augustine, Lib 1,1-2,2.5,5: CSEL 33, 1-5). With the bride, we watch for the coming of the Beloved. At the same time, He gazes through the windows of our hearts and peers through the lattices of our souls. While God made us to long for Him, He longs for us even more. With the Spirit and the Bride let us cry out: COME LORD JESUS!
It was into a world that was wrapped in darkness and sin that God’s almighty Word leaped down from His royal throne (CF Wis18:14-15). Writing about the infinite mercy of our God, the apostle to the gentiles wrote: “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich” (2 cor. 8:9). Out of love for fallen mankind, the Beloved Son emptied himself of all the grandeur that was His as the Son of God to seek out and find the sheep of the Father’s flock. Once He found them, he became the Way by which all the children of Adam and Eve might find their way to their heavenly resting place close to the Father’s heart. United with all the heavenly host, gathered around the throne of the Lamb let us cry out: “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty (Rev. 15:3). COME LORD JESUS!
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