Our humanity is alive if we await

To begin the new year without heaviness, we place our hope again in Him who can respond to our expectation.

Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman before the Setting Sun (1818), Museum Folkwang, Essen (Germany)

AAt the beginning of a new year, we must ask ourselves at least two questions. The first has to do with what we have in our eyes and in our mind. Think about the shepherds described in the Gospel of Luke, who say: let us go to see this thing that has happened (cfr Lk 2:15). If our eyes and our mind are weighed down by images and thoughts that are different from the fact of Christ then we cannot truly begin again because everything that fills them, instead of making our path easier, burdens us.

We must walk, or rather run, because always, in life, when there is something that truly strikes us, one does not just walk, he runs. If therefore we are standing still, or if we are advancing with difficulty, it is because we are burdened by useless weight because we are not simply called forth by the event that has happened in our lives. Every evening, before going to bed, at the end of the examination of conscience, we must therefore ask God for the grace to have our eyes and our mind completely filled by the event of the Incarnation and with the memory of our vocation (vocation is the continuation of the Incarnation).

The second question that we must ask ourselves comes as a consequence of the first and has to do with what we are expecting from the time ahead. If we have eyes and hearts full of the event of the Incarnation, then we also have clear what we hope for.

In his first Letter, St. John says: Whoever has hope in Him, purifies himself (1Jn3:3). It is a profoundly revealing expression because the content of hope describes the confines of our person and the truth of our life. What are we waiting for? What do we hope for? The response cannot be left in the ether. If we are within a vocational companionship, we must ask ourselves what we expect from this place.

From whom do we expect the good of our life? To whom do we ask it?

This too is a question that must become part of our examination of conscience every evening: from whom do we expect the good of our life? To whom do we ask it? And what does the community have to do with this good? The  question is not to be taken for granted or at least it cannot along the entire course of our existence since we continually lose sight of the response along the roads of habit, forgetfulness, laziness and ingratitude.

God placed us in this companionship because he desires good for our life. If we await our fulfillment from Him, then we are purified. This means that our gaze becomes transparent, that our attention becomes fixed on what matters, that our freedom is applied to what is truly worthwhile building.

On the occasion of this new beginning, the Church invites us to be serious with ourselves, certain that the memory of what we have received is sufficient to clear away all of the possible fog. The work of God, in fact, is without measure, it is a continuous and wondrous cascade of graces. His initiative reaches us through the paths that He Himself chooses, which are inscrutable, sometimes full of pain and blood, but which always lead us to our fulfillment.

The luminosity of the cascade of graces that come from God is so powerful that it is inevitable that one will be left moved and fascinated before them. If our step is tired, uncertain, or doubtful, it means that our gaze is not pure. Heaviness is a sign that we do not know how to see, that we are not fixing our gaze on He who fills our life with a promise that He is also capable of maintaining.

Our humanity is alive if we await and it is true if we place our hope in the One who can respond to our expectation.

Related posts

View all
  • Gallery

Novena of the children

As is tradition, in the parish of Nuestra Señora de las Aguas the celebration of Christmas are prepared by the novena of the children.

  • Bogotà
Read
  • Gallery

Mass of St. Charles

A celebration to exchange Christmas greetings with friends, relatives, and benefactors.

  • Milan
Read