Brothers in Sisters in Christ,
We are starting Advent, the time that prepares us for the feast of the Lord’s birth, and almost instinctively our soul rises up in intense prayer so that the Lord may bring us new times and new worlds.
Perhaps at few other times in our lives have we turned to the Lord in prayer more fervently than now, since the times we are living in cannot but be called tragic.
The superpowers act to avoid war and uncover a murderous guerrilla fight; the unjust oppression of numerous peoples; the underdeveloped state of entire continents; the dangers to humanity that come from the destruction of nature and the development of a civilization that is becoming always more poisonous, physically and morally; the blatant disregard of every ethical principle; the systematic violence by radical groups (murderers, rapists, kidnappers) or by masses of people provoked by them; the fear and powerlessness of whoever must prevent injury to personal and collective liberty: all these realities preoccupy every right-thinking person, and profoundly sadden good persons, who see in them the practical negation of God and His law.
As one approaches Christmas, the words of Jesus said in other circumstances come to mind:
“when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8).
I believe there are not words which can sufficiently describe how terrible a situation we are in, but it is not with a desperate or resigned, passive acceptance that problems get solved. Life in society, like spiritual life, has need of our positive, constructive reaction, of our effort not to bewail what is wrong but to be, first of all, builders of something better.
I would like, in saying this to you, my beloved sons and daughters in Christ, to make shine for you a ray of supernatural serenity. I would like you to see how all our lives must be lived in an attitude of trustful expectation, even as we know that, while we are on our pilgrim way, trials and sufferings are an essential part of our human existence. These difficulties are not to dishearten us; rather, we must take new courage in the midst of our efforts and struggles.
And this new strength we must draw out from reflection on what the lives of Jesus and His disciples were like.
We can say that the life of Mary, of the Lord Jesus, of the Apostles, and of the disciples was a continuous waiting. Their prayer can be condensed into the word “Come!”, which is the expression of Christian prayer. In the “Our Father”, we say, “Your kingdom come,” and this prayer also ends the Revelation, the last revealed book: “Come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22:20).
From the moment of the Angel’s announcement, Our Blessed Lady lived the spirituality of “Come,” which intensified as the day of the Lord’s birth drew nearer.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, put almost as a vigil for Christmas, while it proposes to us the figure of the holy Mother of God, must not make us forget the reality of her being a mother soon to give birth, and living therefore with longing for the great event.
But was there only joy for Mary? Does she not know, even if in the mystery of faith, with details obscured, that her Son will be the Suffering Servant of Yahweh and the Immaculate Lamb prophesied by Isaiah?
Even so, Mary looks serenely toward the future and with ardent prayer repeats her “Come!”
We find the same interior attitude in Jesus in the last period before His passion. Every person, approaching grief, would have reacted negatively in His place. Jesus, instead, who knows the redemptive value of His death and who was to suffer for it all the repulsive of Gethsemane, has the strength and the courage to repeat, too, the prayer “Come.” There are in the Gospel in this regard two enlightening texts.
“There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50).
And when He is but a few hours from His passion, He repeats: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).
Jesus, therefore, before the tragedy of the cross, reacts by saying, “Come.”
And that was still the invocation of the Apostles, gathered in prayer with Mary and the pious women in the Cenacle, which they prayed to the Holy Spirit.
Also then the prospects were gloomy. The Lord had predicted to them: “But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matt. 10:17-20).
The prayer of “Come” to the Spirit is therefore an invocation of strength and of help for the conversion of the world that will have to come about through the shedding of the blood of the disciples and the Apostles.
Enlarging our horizons, taking a fresh breath, we must say that the “Come!” prayer, as an imploring of help, must be the prayer of all Christians, who while awaiting the Lord, feel always more violently and radically attacked by Satan and all the realities and structures of our world.
The tragic situation reviewed at the start of this pastoral letter could make us discouraged, but the certainty that the Lord can and wants to save us must push us to pray more insistently the prayer of “Come” - “May your kingdom come” - “Come, Lord Jesus.”
But to me it seems, in this moment, that the Lord makes the invocation “Come!” echo back to us.
We are the ones who must make alive, or better, bring about on earth, love, brotherhood, forgiveness, understanding, and mutual help.
We are the ones who must become less violent and egotistical; understand that our happiness cannot be based on the grief of others; convince ourselves that reaching our just place in life must not mean destroying others; know that any evil done sooner or later falls on the head of the one who committed it.
We, as Christians, are people of expectation, but we must not evade our responsibilities.
The Lord wants to help us and the solemnity of Christmas comes to speak to us of God who enters in, be it in poverty and humility, into the history of each and all persons.
That does not take from us our duty to await the Lord by being His collaborators for a new world.
When the eternal Word of God became flesh and “pitched His tent among us,” there were those who received Him with joy--Mary the Immaculate and St. Joseph, the shepherds and old Simeon.
But there were those who rejected Him: the innkeepers at Bethlehem, King Herod, and later His fellow citizens at Nazareth.
St. John stressed at the beginning of his gospel, “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.” (John 1,11)
Let us instead turn with trust, together with Mary, and pray, “Come!” But let us not close our consciences to our duty to receive the Lord while offering Him our collaboration, so that Jesus can create, among us, new people for a new world.
+G. Giaquinta Bishop of Tivoli (Italy)
Pastoral Letter for Advent, 1975