Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THIS TIME OF A MORE INTIMATE LOVE: THE MYSTERY OF INCARNATION TO BE CONTEMPLATED IN ADVENT

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I found one of the most beautiful answers in Sant'Agostino: "What is that, At that time, the weather? If no one asks me, I know; if I had to explain it to anyone who asks me, I do not know"

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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Meditation for the beginning of Advent

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Dear readers and friends of the island of Patmos

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I am happy to write to you to wish you a fruitful Advent season. On this Sunday, in fact, a new liturgical year begins which, Sunday after Sunday, will take us until Easter night. It is a special time that God gives us.

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About the question of what time is, many philosophers, theologians and men of culture have produced research and reflections. I found one of the most beautiful answers in Sant'Agostino: "What is that, At that time, the weather? If no one asks me, I know; if I had to explain it to anyone who asks me, I do not know" [The Confessions, XI, 14 e 18]. Augustine, in reality, he had theorized his own personal philosophical doctrine on time, but this is not the place to deepen it. In fact, I think that the notion of time finds its foundation only if we consider it founded in the Creation and in the Creator. Or as the Catholic faith teaches us: It gave, who originated all things out of nothing by creating them out of nothing, it also originated becoming and time.

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It is therefore necessary to place oneself in this moment: a before and after that makes sense from that "in the beginning" of Genesis and that God fills with meaning and finality. That's why there is this time we all start today with the Lord, who is master of the world and of history and who started from creation to enter and be next to us. God becomes history among us. In this way, Eternity thus enters time with the mystery of the Incarnation. So let us take this precious period of Advent as a real strong time, that is, a period in which we strengthen our faith and also consolidate our prayer and devotion.

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I would like to stop briefly precisely on the intimate relationship that exists between Incarnation e Resurrection. Together with the Unity and Trinity of God, the second great mystery of the Catholic faith is precisely the Incarnation, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord of Jesus Christ. Incarnation and Resurrection are the poles that unite the whole history of salvation. Let's start from this certainty: we cannot have a happy Easter, deep, spiritual, authentic if we did not live Christmas well before.

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The mystery of the Incarnation it is also the mystery of Jesus who is true God and true Man. Of God that, to save us, assumes a human nature. In his great Love he decides to become like us, equal in everything except sin, so that we might be like him. It is from this that a great path of grace begins, starting precisely from what the Holy Fathers of the Church call amazing interaction / admirable exchange.

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So let's also try to meditate on God's love which is so big that it becomes more intimate to us after the Christmas party. Jesus Christ, the Logos, he takes on the mission of telling each of us that he loves us to the extreme consequences of the evening of Holy Thursday: but these extreme consequences begin with the assumption of extreme poverty in the manger of Bethlehem, which will pass through the glorious and joyful song of the angels. Since his entry into the world, Jesus shows us the face of an affectionate God, authentic and close, decides to be like us, equal in everything except sin, so that we might be similar to him.

Happy Advent everyone!

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Rome, 28 November 2021

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Father Gabriele

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