With our adult habits, it becomes so much easier to choose sophistication over simplicity, and miss the beauty of the Incarnation that is right in front of us. So many people longed for – and continue to long for – the Christ that had been given to us. That child that so many generations waited for has come and is come. But – like the adults in the “Emperor’s New Clothes” – we value our images of our own abilities and intelligence over the naked truth standing before our eyes. We become so self-absorbed that we think our own images of ourselves are actually real, when they are merely images.
This is our great tragedy. We, to whom so much has been given, throw away the beauty of the Incarnation to pursue our own vanity. Valuing our identity as “grown-ups,” we reject the path of the child, and ignore the Christ Child, sleep so near in the manger that we could touch him, if only we would reach out our hands.
Reflection based on Luke 10:21-24
Rebecca Vitz Cherico
People followed Jesus without understanding his teachings; indeed, a number of times the apostles even found them difficult to accept. It is not the content of his teachings that attracts them. It is the power of his presence. There is something different, exceptional about him.
The beginning of the Christian life is not a discourse, a message; it is an event. There is something in Jesus that corresponds with the deepest most powerful desires or needs of the human heart, and the presence of Jesus awakens those desires. These are the desires for justice, peace, beauty, truth, forgiveness and harmony that we hear in the words of Isaiah, the prophet of Advent.
Jesus awakened these desires and, in his presence, they began to be fulfilled. But do we believe that what happened to Andres and the apostles can happen to us today? Can Jesus still fulfill all the desires of the human heart? Yes! That is why we celebrate Advent.
Reflection based on Matthew 4:18-22
Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete