Advent Reflection – 14 December – Restore us, O God, let thy face shine, that we may be saved!   

Advent Reflection – 14 December – Saturday of the Second week of Advent, Year A, Readings: Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11, Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19, Matthew 17:10-13 and the Memorial of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

Let us adore the Lord, the king who is to come.

“… but I tell you that Elijah has already come and they did not recognise him but did to him, whatever they pleased.   So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands…” … Matthew 17:12

REFLECTION – “God fixed a time for His promises and a time for fulfilling what he had promised.   The period of His promises was from the time of the prophets, up to John the Baptist and the period for fulfilling what He had promised is from John and henceforward, to the end.   God is faithful, He made Himself our debtor, not by accepting anything from us but by promising us such great blessings.   The promise was not enough, He even chose to be bound by writing, creating for us a kind of bond for His promises, so that, when He began to fulfil His promises, we might contemplate in scripture, the order of their accomplishment.   The period of prophecy, therefore, as we have before now frequently said, was the announcement of the promises.

He promised everlasting salvation and an unending life of blessedness with the angels, an unfading inheritance (1Pt 1:4), everlasting glory, His own dear face, His sanctuary in heaven and, by the resurrection of the dead, no further fear of death.   This is, as it were, His final promise, towards which all our endeavours tend and after we have received it, we shall seek nothing more, demand nothing more.

Nor has He passed over in silence in His promises and prophecies, how that final state will be reached.   He promised us the divine nature, to mortals, immortality, to sinners, justification, to castaways, a state of glory.” … St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor of the Church

MEDIATION – “In giving us His Son, His only Word,
He spoke everything to us at once
in this sole Word – and He has no more to say…
because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts,
He has now spoken all at once by giving us
the ALL Who is His Son.” … St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

ADVENT ACTION – He gave us His ALL, perhaps today, we can give Him ourselves.   May we be free of earthly things, just for today.    Restore us, O God, let thy face shine, that we may be saved!   Psalm 80:3

PRAYER – “O blessed Jesus, give me stillness of soul in You.
Let Your mighty calmness reign in me. Rule me, O King of Gentleness,
King of Peace.” … St John of the Cross (1542-1591)