Blessed & Joyful Anticipation | A Virtual Pilgrimage of Incarnation Reflections - Week 2

Fr. Sean encourages us to pray for the gift of Joy this Advent season and to anticipate the coming of Jesus just like John the Baptist did.

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Transcript

One of the most extraordinary gifts that the Lord Jesus gives to us in this season of Advent is the chance to await his arrival. And now I want to speak about the gift of joy that Jesus gives to us even in the midst of waiting. Because especially in this season, we can get cluttered by all the things going on — all the preparations for festivities, all the gift buying — and in the midst of it we can feel less joyful and more anxious, worried, and spiritually closed.

But this is the gift the Lord has for us in this Advent season: the gift of joy; a joyful anticipation of what is to come. In fact, I would argue that we are to have the same joyful anticipation that our Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph had at the moment of the Annunciation — that deep assurance that truly God has heard our prayer and has come to save us. Not in the way we anticipated, not in the way we thought, not in the way we were hoping for — but in the most perfect way: as an infant upon this earth.

But why does he do that? Why does Jesus come?

He comes to fight. 

I love the analogy that Father John Riccardo gives: Jesus comes like the Allies arriving at the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. He comes with a purpose — to destroy the kingdom and the powers of sin and death. And he comes to establish a new kingdom: a kingdom of peace, of joy, of love of confidence in God, perseverance, and dependence upon God.

Brothers and sisters, this season is one of anticipatory joy — knowing that he is about to “land” upon this earth; that he is about to be born into this world so that I can be saved from my wretchedness; that he can heal me of my brokenness and raise within me what is dead — all because he chose to become man.

So, beloved, I ask that you pray for the gift of joy. And what does that mean? It means sometimes I have to physically remove things that are opposite of joy. If I’m trying to buy presents for a thousand people, I need to cut that back. It may not be a thousand — it may be ten — and I still need to cut that back. I need to cut out the things in my life that do not bring me the joy of the risen Lord, the joy of the coming King.

I want to invite you — and I’m speaking to myself as well — to ask Jesus: What are the things in my life that prohibit me from living this season with joy?

Then ask him for the courage to cut those things out, so that I can more fully receive the gift of joy in this Advent season.

Because what does that joy then do within me? It makes me aware of the presence of the coming King. Suddenly I become like John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth — I begin to leap with joy. Though neither of them had yet been born into the world, they recognized the presence of the other. John the Baptist, even in the womb, began to anticipate the coming of the King.

And this is the grace Jesus wants to give you and me, beloved: that we would be like John the Baptist in the womb — that we would have a joyful anticipation of what is to come. And it seems awfully difficult, but this is the gift Jesus has for you. This is the gift he has for me — that even now, before Christmas Day, we would anticipate with joy the coming of the great King.

So, Father in heaven, I thank you and I praise you for my brothers and sisters. I ask that you would anoint them, Jesus, with the gift of joy — the same joy you gave your cousin John in the womb; that at the presence of your arrival in the home of Elizabeth, you gave him the ability to recognize who you are. Help us to recognize who you are and to anticipate — in the midst of the craziness and chaos of the season — the peace that surpasses understanding and the joy that is from heaven.

And may Almighty God bless you — the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.