12/11/2015 – Friday of Second Week of Advent - Matthew 11:16-19 –

      It is amazing how so often in our lives we are open to hear only what we want to hear.   We want to see things only from our own perspective and not from the perspective of others.  In the Gospel today, we are told a parable in which the people only hear what they want to hear.  The children play music for dancing, the others did not join in the dance.  They play laments and dirges for mourning, but the others did not join in their anguish. There is a time for everything in the Lord.  Our life goes in cycles.   Sometimes we experience joy in our lives, and at other times, pain and sadness. 

      We are in the midst of the Advent season, a time of waiting and preparation.  But we live in a society of instant gratification and pleasure, where we don’t want to wait, where we get impatient if we need a lot of time for preparation.  Yet, Advent is a time where we are called to repent, to wait, to examine what it going on in our hearts and in our lives of faith.  Sometimes, that is not easy to do since our restlessness and our impatience can get the best of us.  While most of our society is already celebrating Christmas, we wait and we prepare.

       In a few days, we will celebrate the feast day of St John of the Cross, a very beloved saint in our Church who led a very difficult life.  John lived in the last half of the 16^th century in Spain in a very difficult time in the life of our Church, when the faithful were dealing with the consequences of the Protestant Reformation and when the Spanish Inquisition was deciding who was true to the faith. John of the Cross and his mentor, Teresa of Avila, were Carmelites who both tried to reform their order.  They wanted to bring the Carmelites back to their humble roots.   Yet, at this time in history, the Church was very suspicious of any efforts at reform.  Ultimately, John was persecuted and jailed by his own order of monks for his attempts at reform.   He died during his incarceration.  Yet, today, the Church is able to recognize the genius of this saint.  He is now a Doctor of the Church and he is considered one of the greatest poets of the history of the Spanish language.  John is very beloved by many of the faithful, and I in particular have a great devotion to him.  I am fascinated by the way he expresses his love for God in such a mystical way, how he unites his sufferings and burdens with the sufferings that Jesus endured.   John once said: “If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.”  As we celebrate this wonderful Advent season, as we prepare and wait, let us ask for the intercessions of John of the Cross and all the saints to accompany us during this holy season.