Gospel & Reflection for the First Sunday of Advent.
Luke 21:25-28,34-36
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.
‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.’
Reflection
Friends, two years ago, Pope Francis canonised a Frenchman by the name of Charles de Foucauld. Saint Charles was a French aristocrat, born in 1858. During his adventurous life, he was first a Cavalry Officer in the French Army, then he became an explorer and geographer. During this time, he described himself as ‘a young man in the world, without God.’ After a number of years, he found himself back home in France and in the company of people who were intelligent, virtuous, and highly Christian. Even though he was not a believer, he started going to Church and it was the only place where he felt at ease and he would spend long hours there repeating the prayer: “My God, if you exist, allow me know you!”
Following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he stayed over a Christmas season, his life was changed, and he wished to live a life reflecting Christ whom he finally came to know and feel while in Bethlehem that Christmas. It led Charles to become a Trappist Monk. However, he left the Trappist Order to follow a life of solitary prayer back in the Holy Land. In 1901 he was ordained a Priest and became a hermit, living among the Tuareg Tribe in Algeria’s Sahara Desert. He gained the sincere respect of the local Tuareg tribe, who while Muslim themselves, still saw Charles’ holiness and peacefulness and they responded to it. However, on the evening of December 1, 1916, marauding bandits killed him.
Unknown in his own lifetime, his writings and spirituality led to the founding of two congregations of Religious Brothers and Sisters in his name and there is many Charles de Foucauld Prayer Groups around the world. The essence of his spirituality can be summed up in his own words when he wrote: ‘I would like to be sufficiently good, so that people would say: “If such is the servant, what must the master be like?”’
Reflecting on St. Charles after his beatification, Pope Francis described him as a person who moved from “attraction to Jesus to imitation of Jesus.” He said that Charles “fell head over heals” for Jesus. He lost his heart to Christ.
Gathering on this first Sunday of Advent, we remind ourselves that Advent is our time to make a similar journey to that of St. Charles de Foucauld. Advent is a the time given to all Christians where we too move from attraction to imitation of Christ. We give ourselves the space to give our hearts to Christ once more, grateful for all that He has done and continues to do in our lives.
Advent and Christmas should help us all to capture Christ in a real and meaningful way; to capture our faith in Him and our willingness to live by His example. Christ invites us over these weeks, to be ‘sufficiently good’ so that others recognise Him in and through us. So, what better hope could any of us have over these weeks of Advent, but that we shall continually fall head over heals for Christ, and that by meeting us, others will catch a glimpse of the Master.
I pray that I could be such a person.
Fr. Richard