Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
May the Lord Jesus give you his peace.
A very happy season of Advent as we enter into the second week of Advent, the second Sunday.
We're given the figure of St. John the Baptist, the great figure.
Who so dazzled all the surrounding countryside that many thought that he was the Christ.
There's a verse in scripture that people were making the mistake.
And he would say, I am not, I am not.
And here we have, I'm not even worthy to carry his sandals or untie his thongs on those sandals.
So the figure of St. John the Baptist comes to us as the precursor.
And there's a prophecy in the book of the prophet Malachi about him.
About chapter three.
Behold, I send my angel and he shall prepare the way before my face.
That was the word we heard from St. John.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
And present presently the Lord whom you seek and the angel of the testament whom you desire shall come to his temple.
Behold, he comes, says the Lord of hosts.
And this angel is St. John the Baptist.
And that Angelos is messenger in the Greek.
And in Eastern iconography, oftentimes we'll see St. John the Baptist portrayed with angel's wings.
He wasn't an angel.
He was justified from his mother's womb.
And he came in the, certainly in the power and spirit of Elijah.
And kind of heading up all the prophets to prepare the way of the Lord.
But venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, who I guess Mel Gibson used some of her meditations for the passion of the Christ,
has a whole series of meditations in the life of Jesus.
And also she comments on St. John the Baptist, that this prepare the way of the Lord was not just metaphorical, figurative, but also he really did it.
In other words, he went out and with some foreknowledge of where the Lord Jesus was to go in his public ministry, he would prepare the way.
He would, in fact, clear the path.
He would dig wells, all kinds of things, she said.
And there's a good meditation in that for us as well.
Because the preparation of the Lord is not just about the way.
It's about the way of the Lord.
It's about the way of the Lord.
It's not only spiritual, it's also something physical.
So today, as last week, Sunday, the buzzword might have been watch, watching for the coming of the Lord.
This week, it certainly would be prepare.
And on the physical level, we prepare the way of the Lord by contributing our time, talents, and treasures to the church.
Making the church beautiful by going to church, attending church in dignified dress.
Nothing that's immodest, but things that, you know, if you really give justice to the Lord, think about when you go to a banquet, a wedding banquet, your friend, your relative, your brother or sister is getting married, perhaps.
And how you prepare, or a royal dignitary coming to your home, how you prepare that everything is just so, so too when coming to mass on Sunday or even every day, there should be a correspondence to the reality of the banquet that we're at.
And how you prepare, or a royal dignitary coming to your home, how you prepare that everything is just so, so too when coming to mass on Sunday or even every day, there should be a correspondence to the reality of the banquet that we're at.
Which is the banquet of the lamb who was slain.
So, St. Francis is compared by St. Bonaventure to St. John the Baptist.
He also, there's a figure with wings as well, which are the wings of the seraphim.
But St. Bonaventure has this to say about St. Francis.
He's like St. John the Baptist.
He preached to people the gospel of peace and salvation, being himself an angel of true peace.
Again, that word, messenger.
St. Bonaventure.
St. Bonaventure is steeped in the scriptures.
Like John the Baptist, he was destined by God to prepare in the desert a way of the highest poverty and to preach repentance by word and example.
And that was the baptism of the immersion in repentance.
And the strong word in charity that St. John the Baptist would give was meant to cause the meltdown for people to change their lives.
There's an immersion going on here.
What is it?
It's an immersion in sorrow.
St. Paul will talk about two kinds of sorrow.
There's a sorrow that leads to death and despair.
That's not from the Lord.
But there's a sorrow unto repentance, life-giving repentance, that is from the Lord.
And the Holy Spirit is that driving hammer that we need to realize that power and also allow that power to work through us when a word of reproach is necessary in charity, in prayer.
But that tolerance, that word tolerance, does not take on an aspect of tolerance of evil.
It can never be.
It can never be.
And so this repentance, St. Francis also, preaching penance, this metanoia, change your mind.
Change your mind because you'll be off the edge of the cliff in 20 years.
And that's forever.
And so we have to think again.
Again, St. Bonaventure continues,
First endowed with the gifts of divine grace, he was then enriched by the merit of unshakable virtue, filled with the spirit of prophecy, and may be reasonably accepted as true.
Yet he came in the spirit and power of Elijah, totally aflame with a seraphic fire.
And that seraphim is, of course, how our Lord appeared to him as a crucified seraph.
And there's a message in that for sure.
And seraphim are fire makers.
They make fire.
And they are all ablaze with the love of God.
And they are raised up.
And that's the goal of when we are supposed to prepare the way of the Lord.
What does that actually mean?
Well, on the spiritual level, that means that we are to prepare a way for love.
And that kingdom of heaven, which is at hand, means in you and in me.
Because the temple of the Lord that Jesus most wishes to come into is a temple of your heart.
And to get that ready.
And that means that there must be a likeness, a similitude to who?
To God.
Who is God?
God is love.
And what we're talking about is the restoration of the divine likeness that has been lost by original sin.
And that divine likeness is very much the reformation of the interior of man to be able to bear the divine fire within.
And that is no small gift.
But that's the preparation that we should be about.
And to be about that means that the message that St. Francis has for us with this seraphim,
and also the very goal of the Marian vow that we profess, which is seraphic.
Charity.
We have a lot to prepare for because of the gift that we've been given.
The responsibility consequent upon it.
And so just something of a little meditation here in terms of these seraphim and their wings.
It happens in Isaiah 6-2 that we hear about them.
And we hear how they have these six wings.
That two cover the face, two cover the feet.
And with two they fly aloft.
They hover aloft.
And the covering, pseudo-Dionysus or Dionysus in the celestial hierarchy,
will talk about what's going on there.
And they're angelic beings.
They're not human persons.
But at the same time, they have a lesson for us as human persons.
Because what goes on in the realm of grace,
the covering of the face signifies the closing down of being basically selfish.
In other words, the closing down.
The closing down of one's countenance means that we're not caught up in vanity.
Which is a primordial fallenness of the intellect.
And the covering of that.
So we're not looking at ourselves, so to speak.
The covering of the feet by the wings also signifies an obstruction to fallenness of the human person.
Which means we're not caught up in what we do.
Our works.
Our good works.
And the Marian vow has a lot to do with that.
Because we give all those things over to ourselves.
Our lady for safekeeping.
Consequently, we have less of a right than no one has a right.
Because nothing is absolutely ours but our sins.
But at the same time, covering over those feet.
Not taking pride in any good works that the Lord might be pleased to do on us.
What's left?
What's left are the two wings that hover.
And those two wings that hover, we want to go to the gifts of the Holy Spirit for those.
Because that's what we heard about in the first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 11.
And just as St. Francis has a lot to tell us about this restoration of the divine likeness.
How to prepare the way for the Lord.
So too, the guts of it.
Or in terms of the theological grounding of it.
St. Thomas Aquinas has a lot to tell us about with these gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Because faith, hope, and charity are sanctifying grace.
The very life of grace in our soul.
And the gifts of the Holy Spirit are also given to us in baptism.
And the process.
The process of justification.
And they perfect those gifts.
They perfect them.
And every time one of these gifts occurs.
Or breezes through the soul, so to speak.
It's an act of the divine working through you.
Through a human person.
In other words, it's infused contemplation.
Wisdom, understanding.
Go down the whole list.
But if you notice.
Maybe you do.
We traditionally say that there are seven gifts.
In Isaiah 11.
But there's only six.
That are listed.
What's up?
Well, the lectionary uses the Masoretic text.
Which is from the Hebrew.
Which uses fear of the Lord twice.
The one that's missing.
Which is in the Septuagint.
Which is the Greek translation as piety.
The reason why.
This is kind of a difference.
Is because.
The church fathers saw the Septuagint as something that was divinely inspired by our Lord.
Uh, God.
And so as a preparation for the gospel.
And so that gift of piety has a lot to do with us being able to actually call out to God as Father.
Nevertheless.
Being filled with the spirit of fear of the Lord.
Is what the text does tell us.
And.
All the other six gifts.
Shall be upon.
But that.
John Cashion.
Will notice that the phrasing of that.
It's the gift of fear of the Lord that fills the soul.
That fills the soul.
That fills the soul.
And that gift of fear of the Lord is the very beginning.
Of the wisdom.
Uh.
The wisdom that actually will reintegrate.
Basically those two selfish tendencies that go to the self.
It's kind of an interesting meditation.
But.
Because.
Original sense.
Leaves us with the egocentrism.
If we don't have this hope of repentance to the mercy of Christ.
That very gravitational pull to the self.
Will also pull us down into the center of the earth.
And hell.
And.
That's where.
It's.
Tell us or it's.
And will be.
Consequently from the very heart of the human person.
There has to be a reorientation.
And that reorientation happens with these gifts.
The gift of wisdom.
Which is a lot like the water being turned into wine.
Or the spark of divine life going on in the soul.
And it.
It causes us to be other centered.
That we are completely from God.
And for God.
And consequently we can be completely for.
Our neighbor as well.
But it's only with that turn.
With that turn of the heart.
And the gifts of the Holy Spirit have everything to do with that.
So we can pray for them.
Especially for Advent.
In Advent.
Because those things will make us especially like.
The love who is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is this.
It's the proprium of the Holy Spirit is love.
And becoming and preparing the way of the Lord.
Is becoming love.
This seraphic love.
So we pray for this gift of wisdom.
Overall.
But also realizing that our lady.
Has this role.
Of being docile to those gifts.
A lot like a gatekeeper.
Opening the door.
Because the human person cannot bear the divinity.
Per se.
But our lady.
Who is the perfect complement of the Trinity.
Present to the soul.
And the interior.
Can give us that docility.
So that this gift of the Holy Spirit can truly guide our lives.
That our actions can be divine.
You think of the immaculate.
Her actions were.
Divinized.
Completely in conformance with the divine will.
This is the preparation of the Lord.
That the Lord wishes.
Overall.
Last point.
Jesus.
Has waited.
All week.
For this moment.
For.
To dwell in your heart.
At Holy Communion.
And to realize that this love.
Is not just a concept.
But is a human person.
And in fact a human child.
And wishing to dwell in our hearts.
And so.
His desire.
Dwarfs ours.
But let's give us some flame back.
And that we can flame that desire.
The seraphic desire.
For our Lord and Holy Communion as well.
And prepare a place for him in our hearts.
So this day.
We have our task cut out for us.
And knowing that we're not up to the task.
We throw ourselves upon our lady.
Who was by God's gift.
Immaculate.
In the perfect dwelling of the Most High.
Who did not die.
Unfortunately we can't live in مجنсть.
Persuasion.
Lucy Yes.
This idea is a question for you.
So.
What is the Deus.
Of God.
Which you do.