Sermon for today from the Right Reverend Lord Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault (A Traditional Benedictine Abbey), Dom Jean Pateau.
From Rorate Cæli
Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau
Father Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault
Fontgombault, November 28, 2021
Appropinquat redemptio vestra.
Your redemption draweth nigh.
(Lk 21:28)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,
Aren’t we quite astonished to hear, on the morning of this first Sunday in Advent, the opening day in the liturgical year, the reading of the end of St. Luke’s gospel? Why doesn’t rather the Church meditate on the gospel texts narrating the expectation of the Divine Child? Why doesn’t she draw from the numerous texts in the Old Testament announcing a Messiah?
At the end of His public life, as His ascent towards Jerusalem is going to be concluded by His arrest, judgment, and condemnation to be executed on a cross, Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple, and the coming of the Son of man.
Such words may have surprised the disciples. They were worried, for they were sensing the priests’ and Pharisees’ ever increasing resolve to kill the Lord. Faced with them, Jesus was serenely affirming the coming downfall of the Temple, and hence, of the priesthood such as it was then exercised.
At that time, the disciples hadn’t yet understood that the Lord’s death was but a threshold to be crossed, chosen and accepted to bear witness to the fact that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Christ’s words, as may be expected, didn’t go unheeded.
Matthew and Mark report them as well. Both in St. Luke’s and St. Mark’s gospels, it is the sight of a poor widow putting two small copper coins into the alms-box of the Temple treasury that arrests Jesus’ gaze, by contrast with the wonder of the disciples before the splendor, the beauty, and the wealth of this place, that give rise to these words. In St. Matthew’s gospel, the context is slightly different. Before the Lord’s words, first come woes against the scribes and Pharisees:
And as a conclusion:
As she proposes these texts, the Church reminds us that a true expectation of the Lord needs a preliminary: preparing inside ourselves, as far as we can, a true heart, a receptive heart, before the mystery of the Lord’s coming that is going to take place.
The woes addressed to the Pharisees, the comments made as the Lord sees the poor widow, or hears the disciples, reveal to us Christ’s heart, and prepare us to receive Him Who is going to come to us under the guise of a child. The poor widow gives all she has. By casting into the Treasury what’s necessary for her life, she offers in her heart her life to God. She is the image of Christ, Who in turn acknowledges her as such. The rich men putting their alms into the Treasury were merely taking from their abundance so as to carry out a commandment of the Law. Their hearts were not attuned to it.
In the disciples’ eyes, the woman went unnoticed. As to them, they were admiring the house of stone, which is however but a place, a means to lead to God. They were perhaps also admiring the notabilities passing before them. As for God, He searches the reins and hearts.
Don’t let us handle the same way the things of God, and the fleeting and perishable earthly interests. It is good to remember this at the beginning of a new liturgical year. Too often, as time goes by, our points of reference get blurred, or even disappear, and being is displaced by appearing and having, both inside ourselves, and in the way we consider our neighbor.
Today, an opportunity is given us to consider anew our life, in the light of the gaze Christ casts on the Temple and those who put their offerings into the Treasury. Do we give Him everything we have, as the poor widow did, or do we reluctantly concede Him something from our abundance? Basically, to what extent are we available on the path of our conversion? Let us always seek consistency in our lives. If we see light, shall we act according to it?
On this morning, the Church invites us to hope. Hope is the soul of every new beginning. This hope is not founded on an insignificant something or someone. He who is the foundation of this hope, is also its object, it is the Lord Himself, as we sung at the beginning of this ceremony: “I have lifted up my soul to Thee, O my God, for in Thee have I hoped.”
The object of our hope is also a child. As a birth draws near in a family, its members get prepared. As barely a few weeks now separate us from the feast of Christmas, it is time for us also to get prepared. If Christ is to come back at the end of time, He should also come back inside our lives as of today.
How could one not receive a child? What can be feared from a child? That God should come to us under the guise of a child is already a token of His love.
Let us remark as a conclusion that the time of Advent is a Marian time. As she expects her child, Mary already bears Him in her heart. Let us follow her. What pleases God is a heart that is offered, given, a heart which says “Yes”, so as to live of the life God is offering us, His own life.
Amen.
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