Christmas is a home-based reality

Fourth Sunday of Advent/B (1: 2 Sam 7:1-5,8-12,14,16; R: Ps 89:2-5,27,29; 2: Rom 16:25-27; G: Lk 1:26-38)

The Advent wreath is fully lit. Its bright light allows us to see further: He comes to us in unexpected way. He comes on His own terms which challenge me to enter into the reality of God-with-us a bit more deeply.

There is a human tendency that I must become aware and do the best I can to avoid. Like King David, at times in order to make sense of God I try to put Him into a "house," into a box. In so doing, I fool myself in thinking that I can control the divine presence, I can, therefore, manipulate Him to behave as I wish. I know this because often I have been disappointed by God: He didn't behave according to my expectations; He didn't do what I wanted Him to do. God reminds me that He's coming and while He is going to stay in my box, He's also inviting me to see Him acting creatively and majestically outside of my expectations. I think it's normal for us wanting to control things and people and we do this in so many ways. But we must reach a point in our lives when we must  trade these boxes for truer relatinship with people, where everybody can be more than we expect them to be. I know I don't want to be placed in a box and stereotyped.

What happens when we let God be who He is? We are going to see the unexpected. This week we are going to have Mary as our model and guide to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. She is visited by an angel who brings to her the Good News. I am touched by the fact that the Incarnation, this incredible and awesome event doesn't have the Temple as a background but a simple house. The Gospel passage is filled with proper names - of people and of places - almost to underline the reality of God coming into our own history, into our own hometown, into our own house. And the angel is not bringing the Good News to a group of priests, or scholars but to a girl.

Christmas is lived in this way; God comes to us in the reality of our own life, in the messiness of our own homes. And this new story begins with a simple but life-changing reality: "You're full of Grace because the Lord is with you." If I believe that Christmas is real then I have to believe that God is with me, with us, all the time. This presence must generate in us and around us "Grace," His presence must make a difference. Grace is a wonderful, free gift that God gives us when we open ourselves to Him - it fills our hearts and fulfills our desires. How often do I live my life forgetting that He is with me? How often I act as though I have never been touched by Grace? This is the time when I, with the help of everybody I meet, can change it all, and I become more aware of this Good News: God is with me and my life has changed because of this.

I understand why Mary argues with the angel. "How can this be...?" I do the same: "Doesn't God know who I am? Are you really sure that He picked me? Shouldn't He go and ask that person over there who seems to be holier than I?" But the angel brought her attention to another level, making her aware that if God is with us, then it is God who creates this newness of life: "The Holy Spirit will overshadow you..."Yes, God knows very well what He's getting into when He comes to live with me. He chose me and overshadowed me with His Spirit. Christianity is something that He does in me and asks me to collaborate, to correspond to grace so that this process of transformation can happen.

I am sure that Mary did not understand it all and, yet, she makes an act of faith: "Let it be done to me according to your word." Ultimately, I am asked to do the same: do I trust His Word more than my own ideas and opinions? Can I let God act outside the box I put Him in? And can I let Him help me to live my life outside the boxes I put myself in? It all begins with a Yes to live "according to His Word," the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.

I am immersed by the mystery of God's presence. I am going to work extra hard this week to see God not only in the places where I expect Him to be but also, and especially, in the "realities of home." He comes into my ordinary history, into my home, into my life in a concrete way. I am going to welcome Him even thought I might not know what He's going to do.

I know this Christmas will be different.

I Got a "Faith Stimulus" Check

Thursday of the 3rd week of Advent ( 1: Isa 54:1-10; R: Ps 30:2,4-6,11-13;  G: Lk 7:24-3)

 He comes and His coming creates a new reality in my life. Today He comes in Love.

"My love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken"

A couple of years ago, I remeber receiving a check in the mail from the goverment: it was my economic stimuls check - a bizzare move to invite me to spend more money in order to change the economic situation of this country. Today I feel I am getting a Faith Stimulus from the Word of God, something that God is giving me in order to change my faith situation.

The first reading brings me back to the reason that motivates God to incarnate Himself - He wants me back. He has come so that each one of us can be called back to the "original love" and live a life renewed. The images received a couple of days ago - that of unfaithfulness and prostitution - are completely reversed today: He knows very well my infidelities and yet He calls me back and invites me to enter into an intimate, spousal relatinship with Him.

This is a God who is mad. Completely mad. Totally committed to His "enduring love" that doesn't the unthinkable and reaches out to me in such a way ... becoming like me so that I can become like Him.

He looks at me as married to Him. His love shall never leave me. Yet, this love is so transforming that He says that He won't remember my sins, my infidelities, my "prostitution."

This image is very difficult to comprehend. As a human being I don't forget easily but He does. Quite arrogantly, I immediately thought that my sins are really not that big (really?). And yet, as a "coincidence" I stumbled upon a note written long ago about "invisible" sins.... those little acts of cowardice that fill my everyday life:

• Pride camouflaged as caring and attention to other
• ostentatious piety lived to snatch a word of praise from someone
• fraudulent irritability justified for a holy cause
• calculated avarice justified by hypothetical calculations to defend the common good
• lavish suppers motivated by perceived social conventions
• laziness before our duty motivated by assumed health reason

God has healed and forgotten them all but I have to forget them, too and start living my life as one who is married to God, the Maker (who said that priests don't get married?)

Today, God's word come to me as a faith stimulus. Another invitation to be faithful and live my life concretely with Emmanuel, He-who-comes.

I want to bask and revel in His love today. I want to say Yes and start again.

On His Own Terms

Wed of Third Week of Advent (1: Isa 45:6-8,18,21-25 R: Ps 85:9-14 G: Lk 7:18-23 ) 

The coming of the Lord is a cosmic event. And it happens, as it did two thousands years ago, in a way that goes beyond our expectations.  Yes: He comes on His own terms. Am I willing to accept them? or do I continue to put Him under my own expectations? I have to be honest with myself: His coming is not as clear as I would like it to be.

I understand why John the Baptist sent the delegation to Jesus. He had been working so hard to prepare the way of the Lord, to preach the baptism of repentance, and now he hears that Jesus is nothing like he had imagined. What happened? Like I usually do, the first to question is not me but the other. The delegation brings up the question to Jesus: Are you the one? Jesus doesn't answer directly (what else is new! He never does) but He invites them to be more attentive, more "contemplative" and see what was happening around them: He is the One because new things are happening - people are experiencing the Messiah's presence. The coming of the Lord is not something that satisfies the mind or the intellectual curiosity but it is experienced in our lives.

How can I proclaim to the nations that He is coming? I wish i could tell everyone "look at what He has done for me, to me, through me... " but that makes me think: "Have I really let Him transform me as He wants?" Can people read the Gospel by the way I live? Hmmm... lots of more work needs to be done here. Once again, I sing: "O Come, O Come Immanuel..."

He comes! He comes on His own terms, using whatever and whomever He can to reach out to me, to us. Isaiah underlines this reality: His coming is something that involves both heaven and earth. It's interesting that at the time of the prophet, Cyrus a pagan emperor was called Messiah because he brought freedom to the Israelites. Am I opened to the work of God done "outside" of the box in which I comfortably place Him? Do I consider every kind of good work worthy of praise? or do I think that they are not as good because they are not done by "us?"

What happens to us when we open ourselves to the creativity of God? What happens when we open or eyes and start looking for His coming all around us? I believe that we will be able to live out a true aspect of Christianity: the believe that it is a religious based on revelation, on the fact that it is God who reveals Himself to us, and not a religion when we decide what God can or cannot do.

I enter into the Word today with opennes of mind and heart. I pray that I can let the Spirit to help me re-focus on Him-who-is-to-come and I pray that I can recognize His coming today in all the creative ways He decides to use.

He comes on His own terms; I say Yes to Him  and start again.

Faithfulness and Prostitution

I don't usually see the link between Faithfulness and prostitution but somehow it became clear today as I meditated on the Word. I see it as clear opposite - spiritually, being faithful means to be exclusively fixed on the love relationship one has with God in faith; the opposite, then, is the tendency of finding elsewhere - in the likenesses and images of gods - the comfort, ease, consolation that God promises us.

Clear opposite! The difference is even more evident when I call "unfaithfulness" by the real name, "prostitution." I need to handle this and resist the temptation of making it sound more polite or even politically correct. It is what it is: when someone claims a relationship with God and then finds what God gives in the embrace of someone or something else and pay for what God gives us for free ... well, it's a type of prostitution.

In the first reading (zep 3:1-2,9-13) I see the consequences of this infidelity. One kingdom has already been destroyed and the other is close to share the same fate. Yet the prophet doesn't seem to be concerned with that but with the internal divisions - within the People of God there is a group of people who think that they do not need to repent because they are "good enough." Because of this arrogant attitude they are not able to see what is about to happen: destruction. But this destruction is not total; there is a group of anawim, the poor of God, who remain faithful. They function as a seed of hope. They are dependent on God and struggle to remain faithful. The secret? The consider doing His will, acting on His Word more important than what they feel or think.

I can see this lesson in the Gospel as well (Mt 21:28-32). Two sons, both having a deep and intimate relationship with the father (or at the least in words). Both are given the same opportunity to do the Will of the father and act on his word but there are two different attitudes with two different results: the difference is faithfulness.

What about me? Am I willing to sign up for the anawim or do I continue on my  own thinking that I am good enough for God (which means, that I really don't need a savior and messiah in the first place...)?

I am called to be faithful. It's a struggle but God seems to be more concerned with my struggle to be faithful than with the results of this struggle. As matter of fact, the more I fail the more I become dependent on Him. The more I become dependent on Him the more I discover that... I am a anawim.

Let it be done according to your Word, then. I am going to say Yes again today.

He comes for our Joy

The third Sunday of Advent seems to have a special place: it's the day when we light up the "rose" candle on the Advent wreath. The pink / rose candle reminds us to focus on a particular aspect of this week's liturgy: the call to rejoice and be glad. Why? Because the Lord comes for our Joy. Especially the joy of those who are poor. We are invited to rejoice greatly and completely in the Lord.

John the Baptist becomes the guiding figure this week; he shows us how to prepare the way of the Lord. How do we do this?

John was a witness to the messiah; we are called to be witnesses as well. If we are preparing for his coming, then we have to make sure we don't fall (too much) into what the world out there believes: that Christmas is only about music, lights and shopping. How can I be a witness to the Light in the midst of all these competing blinking lights? 

John teaches me two lessons this week: 1. I have to make straight the paths. If my life could be placed on a map it would most certainly be drawn as a series of curves and u-turns. These turns mostly represent the times when I deliebrately have chosen to do it my way thinking that it would be the best way for me. Ironically, these turns make the journey longer. following the straight path is the shortest way to reach the destination. Following the Will of God, tehrefore, is the smartest thing that I can do for myself. I pray that I will keep this lesson in mind. But in order to make the road straight I have to fill up the holes and smooth up the hills.

A hole is a place where there is not enough dirt. I ask myself, what is missing in my life, is there something that I don't have enough of? Not enough silence? not enough prayer? no enough....? What am I going to do to fill up these holes? A hill is a place where there is too much accumulated dirt. I ask myself, is there something in my life that I have too much of? too much television? too much drama? distractions? What am I going to do so that I can eliminate some of these things?

The goal is simple: by filling up the holes and smoothing the hills over, I will bring balance into my life and so straighten the paths, making it easier for Him to come!

2. The other lesson I learn from John comes from the questions he gets: "who are you?" and "what do you say for yourself?" I ask myself, do I think I am the messiah? do I have this complex that leads me to believe that only I can fix all the problems in the world? or that my way is absolutely and uniquely the best way for everyone? I realize that on Christmas day, I will see a manger and this holds the place only for one person: who is it going to be laying there? Jesus or me? Is He the new born King, the savior? or do I think it's going to be me?

I pray that I will have the strength to acknowledge that I need a Messiah and Savior and that I will make room for Him to be born.

This week I want to rejoice as I pray "O come o come Emmanuel..." because I know that His coming will transform my heart. And He will be the source of my joy.

A Trembling Yes that Made the World tremble

It's the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It's difficult for me to understand it fully. I wonder if there is really anyone here on earth who really understands it full. Because of its difficulties, I understand why it is, as it has been, so easy to misunderstand the whole thing. I want to surrender these difficulties today and look at what we are celebrating and enter into this solemnity.

Every feast of the Church has something about me, about each one of us. When we look at Mary, we see ourselves as well: she is what we can be, what we should be, what we will be. After centuries of theological reflections and preparation, we have this feast and I want to take it as an opportunity to enter more deeply into the mystery of Emmanuel, "God-with-us."

The Word brings us to the core of our existence: our story begins in the Garden of Eden. It was not something that just happened. God had a particular project, as Paul tells us in the second reading. Because of the great power of Love, this project "backfired" and turned into a tragedy. But God didn't let death and sin have the last words. His faithfulness is everlasting. His Dream continues.

In Mary we see it all: she is "full of grace," true representation of what we are supposed to be. Of what we can still be. Although she was conceived without orginal sin, she still had to say "Yes." I can hear in her voice some trepidation; rightly so, it's impossible not to wonder what would happen if she agreed with the angel. That's not the problem. Sometimes we let this "wondering" paralyze us, and because we do not know what the future will bring, we never make a decision.

She disrupts the plan that Sin and Death had created since the days of Adam and Eve; with that trembling Yes she manages to make the whole world tremble: now God is truly with us. 

I am enjoying the reality of this feast celebrated in the context of Advent. I can see what happens when I say Yes to the great message: "The Lord is with you." It's a new life, never lived a alone but always with Him.

"Full of Grace." What a gift! Now, God's love and grace has a face, a body: Jesus made flesh because of a yes. I can understand and enter into this mystery as well: in Baptism, God removed original sin. Although I was not conceived in the same way, I can live now the reality of Mary and, when I say Yes to Him-who-comes-to-be-with-me I, too, experience a fullness of Grace. It's the grace that comes from Christ living in me.

With a Yes, I also become pregnant with Jesus. I can be another Mary, and bring Him everywhere I go. But He must be born first within me.

Today, I want to join my Yes to that of Mary. I want to make the trembling louder. The world out there expects me to fill it with His grace.

I, too, have no idea of what the future will bring me. But I say Yes "According to his word." I want to live the Gospel more fully, then so that I can experience Advent more fully.

I wonder... who else will join her today?

A double invitation: celebrate and become

The Word of God is always surprising. Today, I have been touched by the image that is at the heart of the Advent season: "when the messiah will come, the Lord will give His people strength and He will let them rest."

The coming of the Lord creates two things in us today: strength and rest.
Jesus always comes in a particular, historical situation. He comes in my own "Bethlehem," in my own struggles, in my own weariness. And His coming makes a difference: everything is changed; hope is restored and I get a new chance in life.

For Him to come, however, I have to acknowledge first of all that He's not my peer. Isaiah makes it clear: the One who is coming is the Lord of the universe, the creator of heaven and earth. How quickly I can reduce the Lord to something or someone warm and fuzzy, completely lost in the sounds and lights of the season.

When I say, "Come, Lord Jesus," am I aware that I am asking the Lord of Creation to come into my heart? Am I humbled about this coming?

He comes. He comes to change me from within. He is not coming to change my situations or to do my job. He comes to renew me so that whatever I do will be done in a new way. That's how God operates. At times I crash in this mentality: "I have asked God to do something for me, He didn't do it. Then, God either doesn't care or doesn't exist." I recognize this because I was one of these disappointed Christians. It's a very popular way of thinking and today's Word wants to destroy this false sense of religiosity.

Advent teaches us that God does not change others or the situation so that we can be happy. He changes us by giving us a new hope, a new heart, a new way of looking at things.

It's an invitation: Come. How interesting that during the season when we sing "O come, o come Immanuel..." it is He who tells us "Come to me." It's a true Advent, then; two hearts, who long for each other, invite each other to a closer relationship.

It's a double invitation: not only I am asked to celebrate Advent but today I am invited to become Advent as well. , He is asking me, each one of us, to come to Him."

How? How can I respond to His invitation? How can I invite Him closer to me?

Today I remembered the power of saying 'Yes' to God's will. It's the day when a young girl, in 1943, felt that God was asking her to "give herself totally to HIm." She said Yes, without knowing what would happen. But, as she said later, "she had married God, and she was expecting from Him everything." She became one of the most influential person in the today's Church and society. Chiara Lubich, with the Yes she uttered on this day 68 years ago, allowed God to renew her and renew the Church and the World, gifting us with the Charism of Unity. Today, the Focolare Movement (also known as "The Work of Mary") celebrates its existence.

This is how this Advent becomes real life: by saying YES to His Will, to His Word, to His "reality."

"Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will." It's a conscious act. It's a humble word, it's the beginning of a new adventure.

I want to say 'yes' by going into my heart and allow myself to feel what I long to feel. There is something in me that, in spite of weariness and weaknesses, pushes me to move forward because I know there is something "more" in life: desire of new life, desire of love, desire of eternity. By touching these inner desires, I can ask Him to come and renew them so that I can find new strength and new rest.

It is by welcoming Him into my "true" life that I can really begin to prepare the way of the Lord, the One who comes in power, the One who created the whole universe. The one I can call Lord.