indispensable

Num 24:2-7, 15-17; Psalm 25 Teach me your ways, O Lord; Matthew 21:23-27

Advent reflection by John Paul II

"Looking at the crib, our gaze is especially fixed on the Virgin and on Joseph, who await the birth of Jesus. In them we see realized the indispensable conditions to prepare ourselves for Jesus' birth. In the first place, interior silence and prayer, which allow one to contemplate the mystery that is commemorated. In the second place, the willingness to accept the will of God, in whatever way it is manifested."

The thing that was lacking in the scribes and pharisees of Jesus time, especially as we see in the gospel of today, was that they went through the motions of religion but they had no substance. They observed the outward necessities but they failed to attend to the inward reality, communion with God in the silence of their heart, seeking to hear and to see more clearly each and every day. They thought they had it all figured out.

Those who allowed religion to penetrate to the inward part of their being, they heard and saw and believed when they looked upon the face of Christ.

The others, simply gawked at such absurd notion that God would send this lowly of Nazareth to be the Messiah. How dare God do such thing? While those who heard and saw and believed, they had already come to suspect and expect the unexpected!

Heavenly origin or human origin!

Perhaps as we peer into the manager, the empty crib, we can begin to surmise that heavenly and humanly go together, and thus salvation begins to blossom from the top down and from the bottom up.

The answer the scribes and pharisees give is a cop out, "we do not know?" This will never do. We are in the know. We have heard. We have seen. We have come to believe.

In the end this knowing and seeking to know will be the cause of action, love, fidelity, transformation. In the silence, we encounter what we feared might be true as we ponder the manger; it is true what we have heard, God is love, he comes, he keeps silence no longer.

In the inward silence of our heart as ponder the manger scene, the silence is broken and the cry of the babe moves our heart to believe.

"...a star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel."

St. John of the Cross, mystical doctor, pray for us...