22 — BEHOLD, THE SAVIOR IS COMING

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Presence of God. — I place myself at the feet of Jesus, my Savior, to beg Him to prepare my heart Himself for His imminent coming.

Meditation

1 — “Gather the nations; announce to the peoples and say: Behold, God, our Savior, is coming” (BR). The message grows ever more pressing: in a few days the Word of God made flesh will show Himself to the world. Therefore, preparations must be hastened, a heart worthy of Him must be prepared.

The incarnation of the Word is the greatest proof of God’s infinite love for human beings; very fittingly today’s liturgy reminds us of the great word: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you to me full of compassion” (Jer. 31, 3). Yes, God loved man from eternity and, to draw him to Himself, did not hesitate to send him “His Son in flesh like that of sin” (Rom. 8, 3). To Love, who is about to appear “incarnate” in the sweet Child Jesus, we must go with a heart full of love, widened by love. Let it be faithful love in great and small things, ingenious love that makes use of everything to repay God’s infinite love, “Love is repaid by love!” This is the motto that made saints, that spurred a multitude of souls to the greatest generosity.

With this love prepare for Christmas and in this love be faithful because, as St. Paul says in the Epistle (I Cor. 4, 1-5), “what is sought is that each one be found faithful.”

2 — “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be brought low.” In today’s Gospel (Lk. 3, 1-6) the voice of the Baptist, the great preacher of Advent, rises once again, inviting us to prepare “the way of the Lord.”

It is above all an invitation to humility, of which John is not only herald, but model. Although, by Jesus’ own testimony, he is “more than a prophet... the greatest among those born of women” (Mt. 11, 9-11), John recognizes himself as nothing but a simple voice, “a voice crying in the desert: make straight the way of the Lord,” and declares that he baptizes only with water, while another will come who will baptize in the Holy Spirit, another of whom he professes himself unworthy “to untie the strap of His sandals” (Jn. 1, 23 and 27). Indeed, speaking of the Savior’s coming, he adds: “He must increase and I must decrease” (Jn. 3, 30). Today’s Office gathers all these magnificent testimonies of the Baptist, almost to give us a concrete idea of the sentiments of profound humility with which we must level in our heart “the way of the Lord.” If the valleys, that is, our deficiencies, must be filled by love, the mountains and hills, that is, the vain claims of pride, must be lowered by humility.

A heart occupied by self-love, by pride, cannot be filled by God, and too scant will be the place in it reserved for the sweet Child of Bethlehem.

Colloquy

O immense, almighty, and eternal God, how could You give us greater proof of Your infinite love for us, Your poor creatures, than by giving us the Word, Your Only-Begotten? For our sake You willed to clothe with human flesh, flesh like that of sin, Him who is eternal splendor, the perfect image of Your substance!

“O Goodness above all goodness, You alone are supremely good! You gave us the Word, Your only-begotten Son, that He might live with us, in contact with our state of corruption and darkness. What is the cause of this gift? Love. Because You loved us before we were.

“O eternal Greatness! O greatness of goodness! You made Yourself low; You made Yourself small to make man great. Wherever I turn, I find nothing but the abyss and fire of Your charity” (St. Catherine of Siena).

“When I think of Christ, I must always remember... Your ardent charity, O Father, who in Jesus willed to give us a pledge of such tenderness. Love calls for love: despite my misery and still being at the beginning, I do not want ever to neglect considering this truth and stirring myself to love. When You, O Lord, grant me the grace to kindle this fire in my heart, everything will become easy for me and I will quickly pass to works without any fatigue. My God, for the love You have borne us and for that glorious Son of Yours who for love of us has suffered so much, oh, grant me this flame of which I have such need” (T.G. Vi. 22, 14).

Love will fill the valleys of my heart, and humility will lower its hills and mountains. Destroy, O Lord, with the mighty flame of Your love, every pride, arrogance, vanity in me. Tear out, with the strength of Your almighty arm, every fiber of my heart that is not for You, that is still infected by the poison of self-love. I too want to decrease, O Lord, to decrease so that You may increase in me, so that at Your Nativity You may find my heart completely empty and free and thus ready for the total invasion of Your love.