Advent asks us to begin well again

WITH the season of Advent which marks the beginning of another liturgical year, we are reminded of our duty to begin well again in our spiritual and moral life, in our life that is meant for loving God and everybody else.

We have to remember that our life here on earth is like a divine project that has a beginning and an end, and a very concrete purpose. But it’s a project that we also take active part, since as an intelligent and free creature of God capable of knowing and loving God and others, we are meant to knowingly and lovingly correspond to God’s plans for us individually and collectively. We are not passive materials in this project.

And this divine project takes the form of a yearly cycle, what we call as the liturgical year, where the working of the whole economy of salvation that God has for us, takes place. God’s interventions in our life are actually constant and abiding.

This yearly cycle of the divine project is meant to prepare us for our ultimate eternal destination. It would be good if we make ourselves most aware of this truth of our faith, so that we know what we ought to do in this earthly life of ours.

For this, a prayer that can be helpful is the Glory Be, where we find the words, “As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.” Let’s put our mind and heart into these words if only to remind ourselves strongly that we need to have a good sense of continuity and consistency between our beginning and end, between the past, present and future, and between time and eternity.

Let us foster the awareness of this basic truth about ourselves and about our life here on earth. We need to encourage everyone to have a clear and strong sense of purpose, and to know how to pursue it given our human condition and all the means that God has given us.

We cannot deny that many of us are ignorant of this truth. And if not, many are doubtful and skeptical. There are even those who are openly hostile to this truth, swayed as they are by some ideologies not based on faith but rather on some human estimation alone.

The youth especially are quite vulnerable. Often hooked to the many isms of the times, they give little regard to the truths of our faith. Even among those who profess the Christian faith, we can still find many who are inconsistent. As our bishops once observed, many of us are quite sacramentalized, but not evangelized.

In this Year of the Youth, let’s hope that we can do something to make the young people more mindful and competent in developing and living out their authentic Christian identity and dignity. They need to be pastorally accompanied, for sure, and very closely at that.

They have to be reassured of the truths of our Christian faith. A lot of explanations have to be done in this regard. But more than that, they have to be shown proofs and means of how to effectively live out these truths of our Christian faith. For sure, they will need models to look up to, and we just have to pray that we won’t be lacking in this department.

The youth, in general, look for authenticity in the things that we tell or teach them. They at first may have a rather shallow and fleeting appreciation of things, but once they get convinced, they are capable of a deep and lifelong sense of commitment.

Let us underwrite this task with a lot of prayers and spirit of sacrifice!