Advent: A Holy Longing

This new liturgical season of advent invites us to experience once again the longing for the Messiah, the Christ child. The season calls to mind the hunger of our soul, the desires of our heart, the longing of our Spirit to be lifted and fulfilled and to receive complete meaning. This longing in the human heart reveals a fundamental part of the Nature of being human. Within our being, within each and every person there is a hole in the heart that longs to be filled. Some have expressed that this fundamental hole in the heart of the person manifests itself most sharply when one feels loneliness. We must fill this void or we drown in meaninglessness.

Pope Benedict points out in his new book Jesus of Nazareth that this expectation of the heart, this looking forward to something that may fulfill us, can reveal itself in "hope for a future of Justice, expectation for a future of peace, or a longing for a future in which we live more harmoniously with our environment. But these Utopian ideals can easily remove God from the picture."

We should long fore Peace, for Love, for Justice, for harmony, for all that is right and good. But for the Christian for us who follow Christ, our longing for these things expresses themselves in our longing for the Christ who fulfills all history. Our longing is a Holy Longing. Advent then is to enter a Holy Longing for the Prince of Peace, the King of Justice, the Giver of Love, the Ruler and Creator of the universe. We celebrate this longing then in our Catholic Liturgy by joyful expectation for the birth of Jesus Christ, which parallels our joyful longing for the coming of Christ in the end times.

Our culture, the times we are living in, unfortunately perverts our longings, promising fulfillment of life in disordered desires. We are constantly bombarded with the message that true satisfaction comes when you buy this product or that or when you quench the thirst of personal whims.

We know that there is nothing wrong with buying things that help us to live good right ordered lives, and we know that the next music cd I buy or the next computer program I get doesn’t really fulfill that deep longing of the heart. Even relationships with others don’t fulfill that deep longing in the soul.

The subtle danger that we must be aware of, that we must constantly be vigilant not to fall into is the danger of focusing our lives on the temporal things instead of the transcendent things. That is focusing our lives on the things that do not last wether it material possessions, temporary relationships such as the jobs we have, the positions we hold or the place find ourselves in at this particular moment of our life.

Jesus gives us a warning in the Advent scripture readings: "as the days of Noah, before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage until Noah entered the ark.” They were ignoring the signs God was giving them. “They knew nothing until the flood swept them away!”

Jesus also tells a parable “two will be in the field; one will be taken one will be left. Two woman will be grinding meal together; one will be taken one will be left." This parable illustrates the condition and state of two souls. One distracted by the many concerns of life and the world, and one fully focused on the spiritual reality of the coming of the kingdom.

Advent is a time to reflect: are we truly longing for the eternal things? Realizing that only God is the happiness of our soul? Are we longing for him? Are we singing in our heart “O Come Divine Messiah” Are we prepared for the coming of the Lord or will we be caught off guard?

In the early church there was great sense of urgency in the longing for the Messiah’ return. Where is this urgency today? We only have this life that we have been given, a life to be lived fully, but a life that can only be lived fully when we give it away and give it to God. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all will be added unto you.” Somewhere along the way its seems that we have separated the notion that it is Christ the Messiah who brings Love, Peace, Justice, fullness of life into the world. Christ radically changed our world. He wants us to live fully in him. He is what our heart are truly longing for! We should all be calling out Maranatha come Lord Jesus!

Let renew the sacred longing of our heart and seek real communion with the Lord, joyfully waiting for the day of his birth at Christmas and the day of his return in glory! Happy Advent!

(Homily given on Dec 3rd 2007 the 1rst Sunday of Advent, by Fr Stephen Otvos)
(Painting by Bouguereau: Song of the Angels, 1881)

The Immaculate Conception

While this is a painting of the Annunciation by Leonardo daVinci the liturgy of the Catholic Church offers us a reading of the account of the visitation of the angel Gabriel to the young virgin Mary. He comes to her with the greeting "HAIL MARY, FULL OF GRACE." Indeed Mary is full of grace, for the Lord God had preserved her from the stain of Original Sin by the anticipated merits of her divine Son. She, a holy vessel of God, by her great faith, participated with the Divine will and welcomed the Word to be thus incarnated within her womb. Only through this preservation from the sin begun in Adam and Eve could Mary be a worthy dwelling place where the second person of the Trinity can become flesh.
In her humilty then she rightly praises the Father in her Magnificat,
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour, for he has look with favour on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great thing for me, and holy is his name."

Mary most beautiful creature of God, we too are called to receive such faith, we too are called to let Christ reign within us, Pray for us O Mother of God, that we too may leran the Beauty of Holiness!

Personal revelations and Personal Devotions

The question was asked: "how does the church come to approve of personal revelations as well as devotions?

First, the visions will be approved only if the person really lives the life of a saint and the messages proves trustworthy many years after the visionary’ death. The devotions can be fostered as well outside the realm of visionaries. Such as the sacred heart devotion was developed first by the Jesuit Fathers and then Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque had visions of the sacred heart, as in this devotional painting.

But what is private revelation?

Private revelation is just that “private.” God speaks to the heart of his faithful through scripture, words of the saints, sometimes through motions of the heart and the life experience of the faithful and the church. But private revelation goes further. It is the Lord who reveals divine mysteries to the mind and this happens sometimes through what is called “inner locutions”. This is the direct knowledge that God grants to the person, and/or the Lord’s voice being heard by the person. Even further than inner locutions is the vision of Christ appearing to the person and speaking to the person, such as saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and the visions of the sacred heart.

The church is always skeptical of people who state they have received a message from the Lord, partly because usually they say their message is for the whole world and that everyone is in danger especially the pope etc… Their message is no longer private but for the public, and when things are in the public sphere the church has a responsibility to protect the faithful from error. As you know there are many who say they receive messages and many of these people are psychologically unbalanced. So when someone like Sister Faustina comes around and all of a sudden her messages are being read and are spread, it is because it has gone through a process of church scrutiny.

Here is a simulation of what could happen to bring about public devotion from a private revelation. First she/he/the visionary recorded her messages in a diary, (usually under obedience to a superior) then the superior or spiritual director having read it and knowing the holiness and integrity of the said visionary, gives permission to make the vision public, but usually only to some in the community (some saints their community never knew). Then a bishop may hear of the said visions or messages usually from the mother superior or abbot of the community who directed the bishop to the visionary. Of course the messages of the visions are scrutinized as well to make sure that it is absolutely clear of any heresy and doctrine contrary to the church’s teaching. Once this is established, the pope might hear about it through the bishops or cardinals who have been in contact with the community. With Sister Faustina the Pope being polish and sister Faustina as well, He knew of her and saw that what she wrote was holy and good so the devotion of the Divine Mercy eventually became public in the universal church, although this devotion was already being practiced for many years but only privately. There are many local devotions that never really make it to the universal level of the church.

All this being said, the church is very cautious about making public personal revelation. Is it really for the public? Or is it just for the person receiving the message? This is why places like Medjugorje are never approved while the visions are still happening. The church cannot risk taking a stand in things like this since something could occur that doesn’t coincide with truth and church doctrine. The church is very wise and always takes its time with such things. lastly even when the church declares the messages of a saint approved the faithful are not compelled to believe in it. For example: we do not have to believe in the devotions or revelations that happened to the children of Fatima in Portugal, even though the church has approved of the occurrence and the children were beatified.