Vincentian students in Rome gathered in the General Curia for traditional Christmas meeting with Superior General and the Curia members. Father Greg gave homily during the concelebrated Mass on that day, Third Sunday of Advent. Here is English translation of his speech (in Italian):
The whole point of Advent, my brothers, is to prepare us for the coming of Christ. But we understand and know clearly that it is a preparation for His second coming. Christmas in itself, the birth of Jesus, points to the cross, Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.
There are a number of factors in and around the nativity of Jesus that identify a preparation for His second coming. First of all, Jesus was born in a stable. He was born into poverty experiencing suffering and death of those who live the experience of misery. Secondly, those who came to honor him were the shepherds. They were the marginalized people of Jesus’ day. And later on at the Epiphany, the gifts that the kings from other nations bring to the Christ Child, gold, frankincense and some myrrh are gifts given in preparation for the experience of death and burial.
When we celebrate Advent it’s about the second coming of Christ and our being prepared for that. Too often we get stuck on His birth, the beginning of His incarnate life. We are called to go beyond. We are called to let Jesus grow up and mature. Oftentimes that is difficult for our world to accept. It is more convenient that we keep Him as the Christ “Child.”
In today’s gospel, John the Baptist, challenges us. He dominates the early part of this season of expectation. In considering the mission of the Baptist, we understand how our lives share in John’s role. The Lord must increase, we must decrease. Often in classical art, we observe John the Baptist drawing our attention to the Lord Jesus, the adult Christ, by dramatically pointing to Him with his outstretched finger. Such is the calling of all baptized and in particular those in consecrated life.
Our mission is the mission of showing Christ to the world. And that Christ is not just a fondling child in the manger who gives a beautiful radiant smile to those who visit. Rather He is the Christ who committed Himself to those who lived on the edge, giving of himself in order that attitudes and even structures of this world in which we live might be changed to reflect a kingdom that only God His Father could conceive and of which He concretized in His very being.
So, my brothers, today as we gather as a Vincentian community, called to show Christ to the world, let us do so reflecting first and foremost on our own lives and our need for conversion. Let us humble ourselves so that we decrease and the Lord increases. And let us partake together this, the Eucharist, Jesus’ Body and Blood, the Body and Blood of the resurrected Christ, who was born, lived, suffered and died in order that we might live the same way in and through this Eucharistic sharing. So be it.
Tags: Advent, Superior
