REFLECTIONS

“The Cry of Advent”

Holy Church cries out to Jesus, desiring that we join her in repeating the word proper to Advent - the plea of the exile- "Come!" In heaven our song will express possession, felicity; from our lips and from our heart will break forth the "new canticle" of holy Scripture. But in our banishment, although once in a while that heavenly chant flashes like lightning at midnight, ordinarily we can intone only the word of hope and desire: "Come! Come!"

This is the word of exile. Let us not tire of repeating it. If we lie in darkness and in the shadows of death, let us cry out to him: "Come!" And he will come with his grace to purify us and to lift us up. If we sit in sadness and dejection, let us continue pleading: "Come! 

Come!" And he will come with his presence to scatter our sadness and with his help to strengthen our weakness. May the constant cry of hope and of desire never fail to rise from our heart; then each coming of Jesus will purify us, give us life, and make us happy by in-flaming us with love.

Here on earth love has the strange prerogative of producing emptiness in our hearts the more it fills them; of producing a thirst the more it refreshes us; for each degree of love that our soul receives is a new desire for Jesus, a new vacancy hollowed out in it, a new degree of hope and of desire blossoming from the depth of our being. Hence, the more we love the more we repeat the word of exile, "Come!" Even when arrived at the peak of perfection, from that height we continue pleading, and with greater vehemence we utter the same word: "Come!"

Is it not this same word that forms the theme, so to speak, of the blessed symphony of this world while awaiting the consummation of time? At the end of Revelation, Saint John paints with two masterly strokes - two phrases - the history of the world since Jesus came twenty centuries ago until he will return to judge the living and the dead at the end of time: The Spirit and the bride say "Come!" Let him who hears say "Come!  Come, Lord Jesus..  

SERVANT OF GOD LUIS MARIA MARTINEZ 
Archbishop Martinez (t 1956) was a spiritual author and the first official Primate of Mexico.