Fourth Week of Advent: Always Be Ready

In this meditation for the Fourth Week of Advent, Fr. Peter Armenio guides us in deepening our preparation for Christmas, the celebration of our transcendent God entering our world in the fullness of time, by reflecting on Jesus Christ as the ultimate source of peace and joy.

St. Paul preached not that Jesus is peaceful but that he is peace; Isaiah calls him the Prince of Peace; and Jesus tells us: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you” (John 14:27). God wants everyone to be recipients of this description of Jesus. This great joy is for all people and it fills all people with hope.

Fr. Peter directs us, therefore, to ask God’s help to penetrate this definition of peace so that we can “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15).

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

As we focus on Jesus’ true presence in the manger of the ciborium of the Tabernacle, we try to muster up the humility to ask him for another conversion, which is the purpose of these wonderful days of grace called Advent. We continue to petition Our Lord for that third kind of Advent, of Our Lord making his presence in my soul, in my heart. And the theme of today’s fourth Sunday of Advent is associating Christ with joy; peace and joy.

We will contemplate that, especially in a few days when we celebrate the high point of our liturgical cycle, the absolute meaning of human life, the celebration of our transcendent God breaking into our own world, in the fullness of time. God making his appearance as an infant. What does that mean for me? Let’s look at what the Holy Spirit says in these Scriptural readings.

Centuries before Jesus Christ, the prophet Micah says the following, predicting the Messiah, describing the Messiah, “He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord His God. And they shall remain, for now his greatness, his greatness shall reach to the ends of the Earth. He shall be peace.” The description of Our Lord is not that he is peaceful; he is peace. St. Paul will reiterate that. Isaiah will call him, “the Prince of Peace.” Peace will be one of the prominent virtues that keeps surfacing.

In the gospel, especially as Our Lord neared his Passion for the first time, in his last evening with the Apostles, in that moment of intimate meditation, and prayer, and sorrow, because of his departure, he says, “I give you peace, not as the world gives peace. The peace I give you is not of this world.” We savor those prayers immediately before we receive the Eucharist at Mass: “My peace I leave you, my peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give you this peace.”

We will celebrate this appearance that was first revealed to the shepherds. Tons of symbolism as we just read from Micah. Jesus is that Good Shepherd, so it’s fitting that the angels, given the importance of the event, angels reveal His birth to shepherds. From one real aspect, these shepherds were, for the most part, not very religious, not the most exemplary “practicers” of Judaism. At least one commentary said that they could be violent, angry, steal; they were for the most part irreligious.

But being a good shepherd would be the style of spreading the gospel that Our Lord will promote, he himself being the Good Shepherd. It’s no accident that the earliest artifacts, Christian artifacts, that you’ll find in one of the catacombs in Rome, I think it’s the catacomb of St. Priscilla, an image of the Good Shepherd.

So, the images of shepherds we see in the crèche, or the nativity scenes that we traditionally put on the Christmas tree or in front of our house, they look so innocent, almost immaculately conceived. They really were not. And that has tons of content too because God wants everyone to be recipients of this first description of Jesus. Not given in sophisticated theological terms, but in terms virtually everyone could understand. “I bring you good news,” everybody wants good news, good news stirs up hope and optimism, “of great joy.” 

So that’s the first description. And there’s a gentle command that will be much more explicit before Our Lord ascends into Heaven. This great joy is for all the people. And Lord, help us penetrate these words. And it falls very much in line with the mindset of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who instructs us so beautifully, that the New Evangelization is a work of attracting people to Christ. And it involves transmitting joy.

We want to take that to heart, as we all know, in a culture that, in many ways, is post-Christian. People have not formally rejected Christianity or the Catholic faith, but given the common circumstances and situations, through no fault of their own, vast numbers of our members of our society do not know Christ, do not have this good news. They have not had the fortune to receive it.

And the joy is important because joy whets the appetite of our family members, of our friends, of our acquaintances, to ask that question in Peter’s first epistle, chapter three, “Be ready to give the reason for the hope that is within you.” So, what the Holy Spirit is saying through St. Peter, the first pope, that we need to teach, but the disposition of our listener needs to be such that they want to know the reason for the hope that is communicated in the form of joy.

We turn to today’s gospel, which is the Visitation event that we can never exhaust. It forms the second joyful mystery. And Mary leads in the work of evangelization. It’s through her agency that Our Lord has come to our world, ultimately into our lives. The luxury and the honor and the fortune of having the Eucharist with us is traced back to that profound and colossal ‘yes’ Mary gave to that representative of God, the angel Gabriel, and the Holy Spirit worked the miracle.

Mary did not work the miracle. But the Holy Spirit would only work that miracle when Mary would commit herself to being the Mother of the Savior, committing herself and being Jesus’ first disciple. Amid that melodrama, this was predicted 800 years before by Isaiah, that a virgin would conceive, it’d be a very special son, because his name would be God with us, Emmanuel. In that same message, Mary’s informed that her cousin Elizabeth is with child in her old age.

And what do we notice? Well, Mary doesn’t comment and say, “Wow, what a miracle. I’m happy for her.” The next piece of information we receive is that she left in haste. Not very usual for a woman in that culture, in that timeframe, to make a relatively long trip. And she has almost like a knee-jerk reaction to serve her cousin Elizabeth. In a way, Elizabeth is the first recipient of Mary’s work of evangelization. She’s the first one to come in contact with Christ. Mary instinctively is driven by the desire to bring her Son to others. And how does she do it? Well, let’s read the gospel: “How does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” So that experience of encountering Jesus vis a vis Mary. Mary was the first tabernacle bringing Christ, the hidden Christ, to Elizabeth. And Elizabeth implies that she’s filled with joy because she notices her unborn son is leaping for joy. So, we can almost mark the first evangelical act was performed by the Blessed Mother in communicating this good news of great joy. And as very practical Americans, we face Our Lord respectfully, and ask him, “Well, how do I do this? How do I communicate this joy? Do I force it upon myself? Do I use brute willpower?” Absolutely not. Struggle? Yes. Raw effort? No.

The saints give us a very strong clue. I recall a book of a compilation of lives of saints and the title of the book is Saints Are Not Sad. It’s a book out of print. And the point of the book is not only to give narratives of saints, but to demonstrate how there’s a common denominator of joy among the saints, regardless of their temperament, whether it phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine, choleric. And it’s kind of interesting.

I’d like to talk about St. Josemaria’s joy – did not personally know him, but I know people who have met him. And one of those people is in his mid 90s, and personally knew St. Josemaria when he lived in Rome for a few years. And I remember watching a video of St. Josemaria, very good one, produced in Italy, well- made, artistically made, very moving. And this individual did not approve the video.

I gave him a little bit of pushback. I said, “Hey, it’s pretty good! I’m pretty moved.” “Yeah, but they’re missing something very important,” he said. I said, “What could that be? You know, it seems kind of complete within the possibilities of a half hour documentary.” He said, “He was fun to be with! And that is not emphasized. He was lots of fun! We had so many laughs together.” I said, little bit more pushback, “Well, I heard that, you know, he could get serious and correct.” He said, “Well, yes. But that’s almost as if it’s sort of the same reaction you’d have when your mother corrects you. Yeah, you listen, you obviously should take it seriously, but he was so enjoyable.” And then he showed me some pictures of St. Josemaria just doubled over laughing. In those days, they wouldn’t say ‘smile’ when they took a picture of you, but he was laughing. This priest, Fr. Dick, was laughing.

What is also interesting to note, and we could choose our saint, similar commentaries could be made of all of them. But in the case of St. Josemaria, two very serious people, good people, cheerful, but very serious, made it extremely clear how joyful he was, and how much fun he was, almost to the extent that there’s a danger of not including that prominent feature of his demeanor. I knew his successor who had a totally different personality. Now he’s beatified. He always had a peaceful smile on his face. And when he would chat with us, say hello, exchange a few words, he became especially happy to be with one of us or a group of us. And he made that very clear. That begs the question, “Lord, what do I do to acquire that joy?” It’s simple but requires faith, requires commitment. We need to unite ourselves to Jesus in the first place through what St. Josemaria teaches: the Bread and the Word. We need to abide in peace who is Christ. We need to abide in this good news of great joy. He doesn’t just give us good news. He is good news of great joy. He is everlasting life.

And hence, Jesus will say for the very first time how his joy is to be transmitted. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, he never speaks about his personal joy until the very last evening. Yes, he speaks about the joy over a sinner who repents. And he does rejoice in his prayer because the good news is being spread. But in this case, he reveals to us, it was certainly observed by his family, by his followers, that joy is a prominent feature in our Savior and Lord.

I read the following, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,” notice, “abide.” It’s a very special word reserved for references to the Eucharist in John 6. The word “abide” also is associated with the vine, which is a Eucharistic image, and associated with his actual words. There is a certain presence in Jesus’ actual words. So much so that the early Church, inscribing the Eucharistic liturgy, would divide the Mass in two parts, calling the first part, the Table of the Word and the Table of the Eucharist.

Similarly, we say the Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist. And traditionally the lectern, where the lectionary is placed, the Word of God is placed, it has a bit of a table-like structure to emphasize that the Word of God is a port of entry into the heart of Christ. Obviously, the Eucharist as well. It’s through nourishing ourselves with his Words in mental prayer, or meditation, call it whatever you want, and nourishing ourselves with the Bread of God, the Holy Eucharist, that allows us to abide in him.

And he says something very curious: “Just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love, these things I have spoken to you that my joy,” now he’s talking about his own joy, “my joy may be in you.” It’s not my joy. I’m not the source of joy. No partial good is the source of joy. No pleasure, no talent, no accomplishment, no experience, no person can give us the joy only he can give me. “These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.”

He gives us a lesson on how to do it. And it’s all about his commandments, a very rich concept. His commandment is himself. His commandment is every aspect of his teaching. His commandment is to contemplate his lessons, his teachings, his very life, and incarnate it ourselves. That’s keeping his commandments. Not studying his commandments or reviewing his commandments, it’s keeping his commandments. It’s not the Ten Commandments, they’re obviously included, but it’s his very life. That’s the new covenant. The new commandment is to love as he has loved.

And it makes sense that a saint would exude the joy of Christ, not perfectly, but show that as a prominent feature of his or her life, which sounds like a contradiction in terms, with ups and downs, even getting down because of fatigue, sickness, or just human disappointment. A saint is not impervious to suffering, mood swings, and emotional ups and downs. But that common baseline is joy because a saint enjoys a more intense dwelling of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is that good news of great joy, He is that peace.

I noticed that we could all detect that when someone’s especially joyful, there’s a high probability that that person on some level is connecting with Christ. So, we want to make a commitment in order to manifest this joy, which is so necessary for evangelization, for witnessing. We want to commit ourselves once again to a more robust spiritual life where we contemplate Christ’s life and his words. And we abide in him through being present at his Eucharistic sacrifice and receiving the Eucharist. That’s what all the saints did. That’s their secret of joy. Living that attraction that Pope Francis talks about.

Well, we turn our attention to the Blessed Mother. No mere coincidence that after her visitation was recorded in the gospel of St. Luke is Mary’s Magnificat. The first time and only time she reveals the sentiments of her inner self. And she says that “I rejoice in God my Savior.” Mary reveals that she’s joyful, and the whole context of the Magnificat exudes great joy. Mary, pray for us. Help us grow in faith that connecting with your Son, through the Word and the Bread, will enable me, empower me, to transmit the presence of Our Lord in the form of joy and peace.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations you’ve communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help in putting them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.