The path to Bethlehem is mercy and kindness

or why preparation for the Lord's First Coming is our preparation for his Second Coming.

We are a little over a week from Christmas. The First Week of Advent started on a somber note, reminding us that the season is as much about penitence as joy, as it is as much about the Second Coming of Christ, when he comes to judge the world, as it is about his First Coming, when he came to bring the world mercy, truth, and peace. Those readings, you may recall, pointed us to the reality of the coming judgement and urged us to prepare.

The Second Week of Advent introduces in earnest the coming mercy of the Lord. No one can keep the commandments without the Lord’s help. Even with that help, we are inconstant and fickle, allowing ourselves to be distracted by the cares of the world and our past and current wounds. The Lord as Great Physician sees us in our helplessness and promises us the aid we need and the forgiveness and mercy without with we cannot stand before him.

This year’s celebration of the Second Week was punctuated by feasts. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception reminds us that She, too, needed redemption in order to fulfill her mission of being the Mother of the Redeemer. So great was her need that she is totally and completed redeemed at the moment of her conception such that she never had, from the first moment of her conception, the slightest stain of Original Sin. Why did God do it this way? I think there are two answers. The first is that whenever God calls us to something, he equips us for it perfectly, lest the burden be unjust. As she was to be the Mother of God and the Woman who undoes Eve’s disobedience, she needed perfect redemption to fulfill her mission. The second is, I think, along the lines of fittingness or suitability. Just as the Incarnate Word receives from His Father perfect divinity, so He receives from His mother perfect humanity: but he cannot receive it from her if she cannot give it to Him. Yes, God could have done it another way; but He did it this way to show the greatness of his powerful majesty and mercy and the greatness of human nature and freedom when it is untainted by sin.

Our Marian celebration continued with the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Not only is she the Mother of the Redeemer; she is the Mother of the Redeemed who actively works for the salvation of all peoples by calling them to her Son. It is fitting that she is Mother of the Redeemed, for the redeemed are part of the Christ of whom she is mother. St. Augustine refers to the “Total Christ,” Christ the Head and the Church as His Body: together Head and Body make the Total Christ. She calls Juan Diego into the mission of making her Divine Son known to the people by sending him with a message to the Bishop to build a shrine to her on Tepeyac Hill where her Divine Son can be known and worshipped. We know the rest of the story, and how her miraculous image on the perfectly-preserved tilma that should have deteriorated centuries ago is still on display and venerated at Tepeyac. She is mother to the Mexicans, mother to the New World, and, as John Paul II proclaimed, Mother of the New Evangelization.

The following day was the feast of St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr, the young girl who was one of the wise virgins ready for the coming of her King and Lord. Again in this feast we hear the Advent admonition to be prepared.

Gaudete Sunday teaches us how to prepare: Rejoice! If we cannot rejoice, or will not, we had best discover the reasons why and make the adjustments necessary. The Lord is King, and if he is Judge, he is also Mercy Incarnate. The reading from Zephaniah tells us that the King is in our midst, there is nothing more to fear, and that on his Great Day, he will rejoice over us with gladness and renew us in His love. The Epistle, from Philippians, tell us to rejoice and to be kind — the practical way our joy is shown. Anxiety should give way to prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, and then peace will be made known. What would be the basis of our thanksgiving, other than that the Mighty God, who is also the Prince of Peace, hears our prayers and answers them, if not always in the way we would like then certainly always in the way that is best conducive to our eternal salvation.

Gaudet’s Gospel picks up the them of kindness as the expression of joy in the Baptist’s admonition that we share what we have with those in need and that we work honestly and be satisfied with our earnings. John’s baptism is for the forgiveness of sins; Jesus’ baptism is with the Holy Spirit and with fire, fire that burns away all that is base and the Spirit that gives life, refreshment, and peace. In our giving to those in need we imitate the Lord Himself, who, St. Paul tells us, “though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich,” rich in the Holy Spirit we did not previously have, rich in kindness and mercy, rich in peace. Hence the post-Communion prayer for 17 December that prays that “aflame with your Spirit, we may shine like bright torches before your Christ when he comes.” Not before the world: before “your Christ,” the Christ who comes to his Bride. And yet the brightness of our lights should indeed draw others to them, when we then refer them to the Source of Light itself, the holy and undivided Blessed Trinity who fills the world with life and gives mercy, hope, and peace to those who seek Him.

How are you preparing for Christmas? How are you showing kindness to those who need it, forgiveness to those who have offended you, light to a world in darkness? Does your generosity proceed from the excess of your largesse or does it flow from necessity, the necessity of having to show mercy and kindness as the only adequate response to having been shown so much mercy and kindness up until now?

If we prepare to receive him as Bethlehem’s Babe at Christmas, by showing kindness and mercy to those who need it, then he will receive us as his little and beloved children at our particular judgements and at the Day of His Coming. This is the secret of Advent. We prepare ourselves for His Second Coming by preparing ourselves for His Birth.