‘Be patient’, ‘Make your hearts firm’, ‘Do not complain about one another, so that you may not be judged’…. ‘the prophets knew of hardship and patience’…These are exhortative words from the epistle for this Third Sunday of Advent…And added to them is the theme of ‘oice’ for the coming One is even closer now, our expectant hearts begin to feel the reality of God’s promise stirring in the silent depths within and without in the created world.

 Vigilant and ready…to receive.  God comes: “God is underway toward us” (Hans Urs von Balthasar, Light of the Word, p.13).  Images, words straining to open our hearts to receive what awaits us during this Advent-Christmas season.

“We wait for the fullness.  We watch for the completion of the promise.  We vigil for the coming of the unimaginable fruition of the seed growing from the beginning in the heart of God” (p.16).  With these stirring words of Wendy Wright from her book, The Vigil, we are given a window into the Advent-Christmas season. 

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser wrote: “Gratitude is more important even than love because anything which does not take its root in gratitude will be self-serving and manipulative in some way.  Only when we give of ourselves to others because we are grateful for how we have been blessed—only then will our love flow out as pure and as not demanding something in return.  When we are not acting out of gratitude, we may be well-intentioned and outwardly generous in our actions, but we will not be truly acting in love” (Give Us This Day, November 2019, p.298-299). 

I received from Abbot Damian of Spencer a copy of his homily that he gave last week for the funeral Mass of Br. Meinrad.  He concluded his homily with the following: “I’ll let St. Therese and Fr. Thomas Keating have the final words.  Therese expressed her conviction in this way: ‘Even if I had on my conscience every conceivable sin, I would lose nothing of my confidence. My heart overflowing with love, I would throw myself into the arms of the Father, and I am certain that I would be warmly received.’ " 

For the solemnity of All Saints I referred to Thomas Merton who wrote: “to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore, the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and discovering my true self” (New Seeds of Contemplation, p.31).  It is interesting that Merton says it is a ‘problem’ to find our true selves!  Evidently, he is implying that the process of finding our true selves is difficult.  To expand more on this, how do we discover our true self?  This self-discovery is a life-time spiritual adventure.   As we discover more and more of our true self, how do we live from that self that is centered in Christ?  If we turn to Jesus, the ‘key’ to finding our true selves lies in this saying: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake,…will save it’ (Mk 8:34-35).