A Sunday Morning Thought to Start the Week Off Right
The first week of Advent ended and we start week two. What a blessing it was that the glorious Feast of the Immaculate Conception fell on a Saturday this year! We got to Mass early with two of our sons who still live with us. What could be more wonderful than on such a glorious day to attend Mass together? The cloudy, drizzly weather couldn't dampen the glory of Our Lady's great feast.
Don't forget that this year's Advent is on the short side - only a scratch more than three weeks - so the time to prepare is short.
Then again, the time to prepare should always be thought of as "short." Holy Mother Church traditionally recommends we meditate on the "Four Last Things," Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. While you don't hear much about that these days, the fact is we should because we don't know the time or place when our lives will end. We want to be prepared.
Being prepared sits right smack dab at the center of Advent. We prepare for the coming of Christ. And if you pay attention to the liturgy of this first holy season of the new liturgical year, you'll discover that our preparation focuses not just on the fact that Christmas Day draws near, but more specifically on the Second Coming of our Lord. We will all meet Him, all together, as He judges the living and the dead in the general judgment.
One more step to this thinking and we understand that our preparation for Advent - indeed the center of our lives each and every day - should focus more specifically on our individual meeting with Him in our particular judgment. While the readings of the last week and the first week of the liturgical year focus on the end times, the fact is, if I were a betting man, I'd plan on meeting Him before the end times. The end times will certainly come, but the chances are probably greater that my end time will come first. We want to be ready, don't we?
It's not a "negative" thing to meditate on the Four Last Things. It's really quite liberating. You face reality square on, rather than the stuff that passes for reality in our mundane lives in this weary world.
Remember, the thoroughly secularized in which we live easily serve to divert our attention from what's important, even from what's real. The Four Last Things bring us back to reality. They're the perfect antidote to the poisonous pop culture that soaks through our pores every day. The Four Last Things provide a refreshing, cleansing Catholic bath to clean off all the secular, vulgar muck that's clinging to us at the end of each day, especially if we're not spending enough time in prayer, study, meditation, daily Mass, etc. We're so inundated with a world of drivel that it's easy to forget what St Augustine so clearly and simply explained:
Don't forget that this year's Advent is on the short side - only a scratch more than three weeks - so the time to prepare is short.
Then again, the time to prepare should always be thought of as "short." Holy Mother Church traditionally recommends we meditate on the "Four Last Things," Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. While you don't hear much about that these days, the fact is we should because we don't know the time or place when our lives will end. We want to be prepared.
Being prepared sits right smack dab at the center of Advent. We prepare for the coming of Christ. And if you pay attention to the liturgy of this first holy season of the new liturgical year, you'll discover that our preparation focuses not just on the fact that Christmas Day draws near, but more specifically on the Second Coming of our Lord. We will all meet Him, all together, as He judges the living and the dead in the general judgment.
One more step to this thinking and we understand that our preparation for Advent - indeed the center of our lives each and every day - should focus more specifically on our individual meeting with Him in our particular judgment. While the readings of the last week and the first week of the liturgical year focus on the end times, the fact is, if I were a betting man, I'd plan on meeting Him before the end times. The end times will certainly come, but the chances are probably greater that my end time will come first. We want to be ready, don't we?
It's not a "negative" thing to meditate on the Four Last Things. It's really quite liberating. You face reality square on, rather than the stuff that passes for reality in our mundane lives in this weary world.
Remember, the thoroughly secularized in which we live easily serve to divert our attention from what's important, even from what's real. The Four Last Things bring us back to reality. They're the perfect antidote to the poisonous pop culture that soaks through our pores every day. The Four Last Things provide a refreshing, cleansing Catholic bath to clean off all the secular, vulgar muck that's clinging to us at the end of each day, especially if we're not spending enough time in prayer, study, meditation, daily Mass, etc. We're so inundated with a world of drivel that it's easy to forget what St Augustine so clearly and simply explained:
"Thou has made us, O Lord, for thyself, and our heart shall find no rest till it rest in thee."Keep on preparing your soul each and every day this Advent. Don't let the pressing business and busyness of the day distract your mind and heart from the coming of Christ.
Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts.
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