Dear friends of Gethsemane, peace to you!
We have just entered the liturgical season of Advent, a time in which the Lord gives us so many opportunities to discover his boundless love and his Presence in our lives and in our history. This time is characterized by waiting. The waiting itself is always in relation to someone or something. Seen as an end in itself would be empty, meaningless and would serve no one! Waiting for no one serves no one! Each of us awaits someone. All of us therefore live a human expectation, but it becomes profound and revealing if it is theological. We note all this in the pages of the Gospel that tell of the fulfilment of the Promise. There are several protagonists: Mary (Lk 1:26-38); Joseph (Mt 1:18-24); Zechariah (Luke 1:5-25); Elizabeth (Lk 1:39-46:56-68:80); Simeon and Anna (Lk 2:22-40); the Magi, Herod, the People (Mt 2:1-12). From a human point of view we could say that there is a human expectation: Mary awaited the Messiah, but perhaps as a collective feeling of the people, but maybe she did not expect that she was the chosen one! Joseph expected to have a bride, to have a holy family, children, like all the holy families of Israel, but not the Custodian of the Son of God. And so are the other characters.
We notice that most of those who are visited by God are in their daily lives. One at home, one in prayer, this in the street, that in the Temple, or on their journey. They are people who lead a simple, holy and upright life. They pray, observe the Law, try to correspond to God’s desire in the observance of his commandments. Others hope in silence and hidden life. Still others are reached by God, by his "waiting", in a unilateral way, with divine gratuity, without expectations!
Here is the novelty of the theological perspective: there is an expectation on the part of God, who works, which is always surprising and catches us off guard! It is a grace! It is a gift that surpasses us and has much greater characteristics that takes us by the hand personally but that involves all of humanity. We await God and He awaits us first. Likewise here in Gethsemane. We think of meeting the Lord, going to meet him, but the opposite is true: it is He who comes to meet us and we must let ourselves be met. Are we waiting for Him? Sure! But how true is that the Lord awaits us from Eternity. He, Infinite and Almighty, is manifested in littleness and welcomes and involves us, his little children! He is the Eternal and tries to get in touch with us, pacifying heaven and earth, making himself one of us to let us enter eternity. Let us try to dialogue with the Lord in the prayer of the Holy Hour. It is the same Child of Bethlehem who will whisper to us: "It is from eternity that I have been waiting for you!" Let us not tire of praying to the Prince of Peace.
May the Lord bless you
Happy Advent journey and Merry Christmas
