First Sunday of Advent 2010

Our Hearts Cry Out for You

If We don't seek to recognize Christ now, then his first coming is a sentimental story, and his promised second coming is an abstract future that doesn't affect or concern us in the present. Those who recognize Christ eat and drink and are given in marriage like our neighbors. However, we recognize that these and all of our human activities are signs that point to the Presence of God who became human and promised to remain with his Church.

In becoming human, Jesus shows us that our humanity is not an obstacle to our communion with God, but rather the only path to our divine destiny. When our hearts are most awake they are most aware of their need for the face of the Father which takes flesh in the Son, and thus they are most prepared to rejoice at this coming. If our hearts are not begging "Come, Lord Jesus' in our ordinary life today, then we cannot pretend to have recognized him when he first came, and we cannot expect truly to welcome him at his glorious return.

That is why the Church gives us the season of Advent, to recognize the longing in our hearts for a salvation which we cannot give ourselves, but for which we can beg today and forever, "Come, Lord Jesus".

Father Richard Veras (taken from The Magnificat Advent Companion)

God Our Father, you have etched your divine image into the infinite longings of the human heart. May we recognize Jesus as the divine destiny of our human desire.