Catholic during the Great Apostasy

The Church of St. solemnly prepares for the reception of Christ, just like the wise virgins who cleansed their lamps to welcome the Bridegroom.

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.(Luke XII, 35–36.)

Redeemed souls are like living stones, forming the edifice of the Church. Each of them is the object of the same care that God bestows upon the Church, which He purchased with His own Blood (Acts XX, 28). Thus, each of us can boldly repeat with St. Paul: The Son of God loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal. II, 20.) This unity of purpose compels us to see the Church’s destiny as our own and to align our minds and hearts with its thoughts and dispositions.

Together with the Saints of the Old Covenant, let us implore God to send the Messiah and, in spirit, contemplate the darkness of error and sin in which humanity groaned before the birth of God. Let our hearts respond with love; let them strive to repay, even in part, the debt of gratitude to the Redeemer who did not hesitate to descend to earth and share the misery of His creation.

He desires our prayers and waits for them.

After fulfilling this first duty, let us pause and fix our thoughts on the mysterious coming of the Good Shepherd, who not only safeguards His entire flock but also spares no effort or labor for each individual sheep, for each is equally dear to Him.

Since the Heavenly Father delights in us to the extent that He sees His Son’s image faithfully reflected in our souls, let us fervently ask Jesus to enter our hearts, make them like His own, and take full possession of them. Then, the mission entrusted to the Holy Church on earth will be accomplished, which speaks to us through the words of the Apostle to the Gentiles:  My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, (Gal. IV, 19).

And just as, coming into the world to complete His sacrifice, the Savior takes the form of a child and gradually grows in age and wisdom, so He acts in souls. In this commemorative period of His coming, Jesus is born anew in the hearts of men for a new life of grace, but alas, how few people respond to Him with gratitude!

Indeed, the Lord Jesus has on earth a small group devoted to Him, living ever more fully by His life. Yet the majority scorn His graces through sinful indifference, having already abandoned their first love (Rev. II, 4) and grown cold in apathy. Others, equally numerous, do not even seek the life-giving nourishment for their hearts. By staying distant from the One who declares, “I am the life” (John XIII, 6), they prepare for their souls inevitable death.

During Advent, the Lord Jesus knocks at the doors of human hearts, either tangibly or in a hidden way. The Almighty Creator, at whose mere command all doors would have to open, now humbly asks for entry to this inn. Shall it again be said, as it was of Bethlehem: “There was no room for Him” (Luke II, 7), “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John I, 11)? At least, this is the case for the majority. Let us listen further to how He repays those who offer Him hospitality: “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God” (John I, 12).

Prepare yourselves, then, to welcome the Savior, you souls who for so long have desired no other life, no other heart, no other yearning but Jesus’ alone! Behold, He comes, radiant in beauty, surpassing all your previous understanding! Incline your ear to the words of the Divine Liturgy, and love will undoubtedly grant you new understanding. Open the gates, that the King of Glory may enter (Psalm 23), and to you, Christians, who have Him but neither know nor savor His ineffable sweetness. He now brings a fresh measure of His gifts, unmindful of our transgressions, He who makes all things new (Rev. XXI, 5). Make room for Him! The Child is about to be born; the moment draws near. Awaken at last from the lethargy of your soul, and, singing pious hymns to Him, watch that you do not fall asleep again. How much solace the words of the Liturgy bring to the soul, proclaiming the darkness that only God can dispel, the wounds that only His hand can heal, and the sicknesses cured by the Savior’s healing touch.

Cast away from you all the transgressions you have committed, and strengthen yourself with a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? ³² I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Repent and live!(Ezek. XVIII, 31–32). Christmas is a day of universal mercy—if only we do not close our hearts to the Lord, who so kindly asks to enter. Let us cast away fears about the past; no matter how grievous, it will sink into the sea of forgetfulness, for our God desires that where sin abounded, grace should abound even more (Rom. V, 20).

If this inexhaustible sweetness does not yet move us, for our hearts, hardened in iniquity, have lost childlike trust in the Best of Fathers, let us place ourselves in spirit before His judgment, the third and fearsome coming of the Lord: Behold, heaven receded before Him as a scroll rolled up (Rev. VI, 14), a sharp double-edged sword comes from His mouth (Rev. I, 16), and the cries of the damned rend the air: Mountains, fall on us! Hills, cover us! (Luke XXIII, 30). These are the cries of those who did not recognize the time of the Lord’s visitation (Luke XIX, 44), who rejected the God of Peace, and thus fell into the hands of the Judge who will cast them into the abyss of eternal fire, its flames reaching the lowest depths of hell, consuming the earth and its produce, and scorching the foundations of the mountains (Deut. XXXII, 22). And there will begin the gnawing worm of remorse, which never dies.

Thus, let hearts tremble with holy fear at the Love they resisted. Let them measure their strength and calculate well: They scorned the Child, but will they endure the Almighty God, who will one day come not to save but to judge the world in righteousness and demand a strict account of life?..

There is a servile fear and a filial fear. The former, without love, creates slaves; the latter should belong to every Christian, for it is the share of loving hearts and befits God’s children who do not wish to incur the wrath of their good Father. And although perfect love casts out fear (1 John IV, 18), it occasionally returns even to the Saints, illuminating their conscience’s depths like lightning and filling them with blessed humility. In such moments, they see more clearly the misery of their own corruption and feel greater gratitude for the unfathomable mercy of God, of which man is so undeserving.

Thus, it will be good for all to often recall the terrible judgments of God and cry out with the Psalmist: Pierce my flesh with Your fear, O Lord!

From what has been said, it follows that Advent is a time of purification. The call of St. John, which the Holy Church often repeats in these days, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” expresses this same thought. Let each one work to smooth that path in their soul, which will serve as the Lord’s entrance. The righteous should strive ever higher, according to the Apostle’s words, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Phil. III, 13). Sinner, break the chains of evil habits that bind you, subjecting the body to the spirit and drawing courage from the prayers of the Church. Then Jesus will not pass you by, for He Himself has said: Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

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Liturgical year. Advent. – With the fonts of the Diocesan Printing Office. Sandomierz. 1927.