In today’s gospel we’re introduced to a familiar Advent character, known to us as John the Baptist, the earthly cousin of Jesus. Yet, John played a much greater role than simply being the next of kin to Our Lord. The last line of our Gospel passage is unique to the Gospel of Luke, “…and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” This one line brings up an important theme throughout Luke’s account of the life of Christ, essentially that the Salvation offered by the coming of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, is open and available to all. John was stressing the fact that the Messiah would not come simply for the Jews but for all humanity. This includes us of course, however, we cannot merely accept the Salvation of Christ in a passive way.
Let’s consider for a moment St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Unlike the community in Corinth to whom he wrote, Paul was always pleased with the Philippians and their spiritual progress. They were sort of the “Golden Children” of Paul’s missions. He speaks of the joy which he feels when even thinking about them. Nevertheless, Paul does not simply praise the community in Philippi, but encourages them to continue to grow in their love for God.
Paul says: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” So we must remember that our life of faith, just as that of the Philippians, is a complete and total gift from God. God creates us with an innate desire to know and love Him. He plants the seed. Any inkling that we have to turn toward God is a gift originating in Him. Its is God who has begun a good work in you.
Similarly, as St. Paul says, it is God who will bring it to completion. Any progress we make in our lives of holiness is due to the grace of God, nevertheless, there is one caveat. We must be both open to and willing to cooperate with the grace we receive from God. St. Augustine tells us: “God who created you without your cooperation will not save you without your cooperation.”
As we enter more deeply into the season of Advent, anxiously awaiting the celebration of the Incarnation at Christmas, there is no better time to open ourselves to cooperate with the grace of God. Our primary focus must be prayer. St. John of the Cross says “He who avoids prayer is avoiding all that is good.” Without prayer, there is no growth in the life of holiness.
So, what ought our prayer during Advent look like? Well, the answer to that will be different for each and every one of us. We are all on different parts of the journey. We all have different stumbling blocks. We all have different fears and burdens that we carry. Yet, there is certainly things that are universal about our prayer.
First of all personal prayer need not be difficult or complicated. Simply reading a verse or two from Sacred Scripture and spending some time considering that verse’s meaning for your day our you life in general can bring about rich spiritual fruit.
Second of all, all prayer should consist in meaningful conversation with our Creator. Sometimes the best prayer is when we come before our Lord informally and simply talk to Him. We talk about our day, our lives, our relationships, our struggles our joys. Similarly this type of prayer can be incredibly beneficial for us, as it helps us get to know God as it were, and become comfortable in His presence.
Carlo Carretto, a spiritual writer of the 20th century, once likened prayer to the relationship we have with someone we love. I leave you with his words:
I said earlier that prayer is like love. Words pour at first. Then we are more silent and can communicate in monosyllables. In difficulties a gesture is enough, a word, or nothing at all—love is enough. Thus the time comes when words are superfluous and meditation is difficult, almost impossible. That is the time for the prayer of simplicity. The soul converses with God with a single loving glance…the soul finds itself at ease, almost cradled in God’s arms.
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