2016
Schoenstatt Scotland
8th December
Advent Calendar 2016
How might you describe the world in which you live today?
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We live in a world of science,
technology and bounty’
Everything is at our fingertips and everything is
perishable and has built-in termination and
redundancy. It is a world where even your computer is
classified as vintage after six years of work and
companionship!
Everything commences degrading upon purchase. And
yet we feel more responsible today for our own existence
in this fast paced world. it is a world where individuals
cherish their moments in the limelight and seek stardom,
and significance, even if only fleetingly, which is yet
another perishable artefact.
We cherish celebrity which also has a terminal-velocity.
And with all of our expertise we can be quite dim.
Literally and spiritually dim.
Why then, are we so enamoured with every shining little
degradable purchase, yet forget that eternal life has been
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Schoenstatt Scotland
purchased for us at much greater cost than we can
envisage.
We carry a dreadful burden, one of dismissing God in
our contemporary world. And so we conduct ourselves
as if everything today depended on our own doing and
saying! So we live without homecoming, without real
appreciation and discernment, without real love, nurture
and care and without the echo in our hearts of a God
who knows us better than we know ourselves.
Dare to stoop to serve others.
Christ will lift you up!
‘For me Christmas has always been
about this: Contemplating the visit
of God to his people.’ Pope Francis.
The essence of Christmas is love,
bring it to others!
‘Christ does not force our will. He
takes only what we give him. But
he does not give himself entirely
unless he sees that we yield
ourselves entirely to him.’ St. Teresa
of Avila.
We also, if living like this have a tendency to put down
others because we are more important than they are.
Some even de-humanise others with their speech. For
they abuse the privilege of authority and exert the power
to insult, demean and belittle. Yet, all have the right to
expect the adults around them to behave responsibly,
especially those whose job it is to teach, instruct and
inform them. Some individuals live today in a bubble
with themselves at the centre of it and everything has to
revolve around them. We can of course live a very
different way. We can recognise and live in the
sustaining goodness of God. The God whom we know
has an interest in us, for each of us is the apple of his
eye. We don’t need to forge ahead as if all depends on
us. We forge ahead and act into life, sensing the
immense joy and happiness and hearing God’s
invitation, gently calling us forward.
We don’t need to live life in a vacuous state, but can live
it fully alive and aware, through the joy, love and
embrace of God. Note that friendship is rooted in
appreciation, regard and love of the other person. It is a
love not only willing to give of itself, regardless of
response (do you honestly see that in celebrity?), but a
love willing to suffer for the other. In real love and
friendship you are able to carry and be carried, this is at
the centre of the authentic relationship.
In all our frantic distraction and preoccupation, we need
to come home to God, for inner-silence eludes us and is
no longer part of our daily bread. This Advent, think of
saving ourselves and restoring our reliance on God, for
we are made in his image and likeness and yet we have
grown distant to his likeness. Become like his nature and
love, and consider how much better the world would be
if we all gave gifts of understanding and true
compassion, of service and friendship, of kindness and
gentleness. This Advent why not recover the world for
you and yours and then push that love out into the earth
for all humanity to benefit.
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