1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23,
24
About time spans and right moments, dear brothers, I
have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking
of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now
peace reigns, and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon
them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape
for them.
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| Christ the Divine Physician |
You, however, dear brothers,
are not to remain in darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise
you like a thief. For you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is
not filled with night and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but
rather cultivate an alert and sober state of mind.
Those who sleep, sleep at
night, and those who are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we
belong to the brightness of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate
of faith and love, our head armed [protected] with the hope of healing….May God
himself, however, the source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May
your complete and undivided being, Spirit, Soul, and Body, remain pure and
unclouded at the coming in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust
in him who calls you. He it is who also lets you reach the goal.
4th Advent
December 21, 2014
1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24
You may have had the experience window shopping: you see the
reflection of others in the glass; and you may have a particular experience of someone;
perhaps one arouses a bit critical. And suddenly you are shocked to realize that
you are looking at yourself.
At this season of the year we may be inclined think that
somehow our deepest desires will be fulfilled; that we will be surrounded by
the warmth and love of family and friends; that we will be contented. And so we
may be surprised or even shocked that we may at the same time feel ourselves to
be intensely alone, isolated and unfulfilled. And one of the uncomfortable
revelations comes from catching an objective glimpse of ourselves.
What comes to our aid is our own objectivity. We can be
helped by shedding light on the untruthfulness of our own illusions and
delusions, on our own deceptive egotism. And we can set our sights instead on
the image of the Coming One. The One who was present at the creation of the
human being, who walked the paradisal garden amid the freshness of creation, He
who is our higher self and our true being, He is drawing near. He is willing to
enter into our tarnished circumstances. He is willing to enter the fallen
domain of the heart, just as He once was born into degraded surroundings on
earth. For he came, he continues to come, to hallow and to heal. The poet says:
Let the stable still astonish.
Straw–dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: “Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens
and earth
Be born here, in this place?
Who but the same God
Who
stands in the darker, fouler rooms
Of our hearts
And says, “Yes,
Let the God of Heaven and Earth
Be born here –
In this place.[1]
