Advent Meditation~By St. Alphonsus de Liguori (November 30)

[Dawn Marie]

THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH

THE INCARNATION

Discourse by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori

 

The Eternal Word is made Man

"I came to cast fire on the earth:" so spoke Jesus Christ; and truly so it was.  Before the coming of the Messiah, who loved God upon earth? Hardly was He known in a nook of the world, that is, in Judea; and even there how very few loved Him when He came!  As to the rest of the world, some worshipped the sun, some the brutes, some the very stones, and others again even viler creatures still.  But after the coming of Jesus Christ, the name of God became everywhere known, and was loved by many.  After the Redeemer was born, God was more loved by men in a few years than He had before been in the lapse of four thousand years, since the creation of man. 

 

It is a custom with many Christians to anticipate the arrival of Christmas a considerable time beforehand by fitting up in their homes a crib to represent the birth of Jesus Christ; but few there are who think of preparing their hearts, in order that the Infant Jesus may be born in them, and there find His repose.  Among these few, however, we would be reckoned, in order that we too may be made worthy to burn with that happy flame which gives contentment to souls on this earth, and bliss in Heaven.

 

Let us consider on this first day how the Eternal Word had no other end in becoming man than to inflame us with His divine love.  Let us ask light of Jesus Christ and of His most holy Mother, and so let us begin.

 

Adam, our first parent, sins; ungrateful for the great benefits conferred on him, he rebels against God, by a violation of the precept given him not to eat of the forbidden fruit.  On this account God is obliged to drive him out of the earthly paradise in this world, and in the world to come to deprive not only Adam, but all the descendants of this rebellious creature, of the heavenly and everlasting paradise which He had prepared for them after this mortal life.

 

Behold, then, all mankind together condemned to a life of pain and misery, and forever shut out from Heaven.  But hearken to God, who, as Isaias tells us in his fifty-second chapter, would seem, after our manner of understanding, to give vent to his affliction in lamentations and wailings:  "And now what have I here, saith the Lord, for My people is taken away gratis."  "And now," says God, "what delight have I left in Heaven, now that I have lost men, who were my delight?  My delights were to be with the children of men."   But how is this, O Lord?  Thou hast in Heaven so many angels; and canst Thou thus take to heart having lost men?  Indeed, what need hast Thou of angels or of men to fill up the sum of Thy happiness?  Thou hast always been, and Thou art in Thyself, most happy; what can ever be wanting to Thy bliss, which is infinite?  "That is all true," says God; "but" (and these are the words of Cardinal Hugo on the above text of Isaias) ----- "but, losing man, I deem that I have nothing; I consider that I have lost all, since My delight was to be with men; and now these men I have lost, and, poor hapless creatures, they are doomed to live forever far away from Me."

 

But how can the Lord call men His delight?  Yes, indeed, writes St. Thomas, "God loves man just as if man were His god, and as if without man He could not be happy; as if man were the god of God Himself, and without him He could not be happy."  St. Gregory of Nazianzen adds, "Moreover, that God, for the love He bears to men, seems beside Himself: we are bold to say it, God is out of Himself by reason of His immense love;" so runs the proverb, "Love puts the lover beside himself." "But no," then said the Lord, "I will not lose man; straightway let there be found a Redeemer who may satisfy My justice in behalf of man, and so rescue him from the hands of his enemies and from the eternal death due to him."

[Gloria]

I am so glad you are posting the Advent Meditations~By St. Alphonsus de Liguori- You have just given me a precious  Christmas gift.  Thank you Dawn Marie

[Cathleen]

Thanks for posting!  ^_^

[Dawn Marie]

How could this discourse alone, not melt the most hardened of hearts?