Sunday 1th er December 2024

1er Advent Sunday – Year C

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1st reading: Jeremiah 33,14-16

Psaume : 24 (25),4-5ab,8-9,10.14

2rd reading: 1 Thessalonians 3,12:4 – 2:XNUMX

Gospel: Luke 21,25-28.34-36

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Fear, the seed and prayer.

Fear… men will die of fear in anticipation of what is to happen to the world. And we are in a time where means are taken with generosity to scare us: to scare us of illness, of ecology, to scare us on the economic level, to scare us with, alas, many wars and many threats. And I would like to meditate for a few moments on fear with an affirmation that may surprise you: if we think carefully, we are only afraid of what does not exist. We are afraid of what “could” happen. When I am sick, I am not afraid of my illness: I am in pain. I may be afraid of dying, but this dying is tomorrow, it is not what I am experiencing. If I am in front of a threatening dog that barks very loudly, I am afraid that it will bite me. But once it bites me, I am not afraid: I am in pain; I may be afraid that it will bite me again. So, our fear says something about our relationship to tomorrow or to later, and the antidote to fear is trust in God who does all things well and who loves us with kindness. It is trust and nothing but trust that will lead us to love, says Saint Therese (LT 197). Let us take advantage of this time of Advent to let ourselves be stripped of our fears, to look at what scares us. And for all these things, to make acts of trusting faith in God.

The germ… “In those days, at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to spring up for David, and he will execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved.” I invite you to look at Christ Jesus, dead and resurrected, as this seed in the midst of our world. And the Church — which is this portion of humanity being saved so that all men may be saved — is at the same time the one who receives this seed and who keeps it preciously to give it to the world, at the same time as she is herself a seed; the Church is like the seed of the Kingdom. Now a seed must be taken care of because it is fragile, because it is very small, because it must grow. In a certain way, we must take care of Jesus in our world. We must take care of the Church as the seed of the Kingdom. Taking care of Jesus is first of all taking care of the presence of Jesus in me. How do I welcome him? How am I present to him throughout my day? If the Lord truly comes to dwell in our hearts through faith, as Paul says to the Ephesians (3,17:XNUMX), in fact, I realize that often Christ Jesus is indeed there in me, but it is I who am not there... It is I who live as if outside of myself, instead of finding this presence of Christ in me, but which is like a very fragile germ.

How do we help our society receive this seed that is Jesus?

And then the Church as a seed… What is fragile in the Church is fraternal charity. What makes the Church Church is fraternal charity. It is not me who says this, it is Jesus. Remember at the beginning of his speech after the Last Supper: “It is by the love you have for one another that you will be recognized as my disciples.” (Jn 13,35:XNUMX). The only sign of recognition that Jesus gives to the world is brotherly charity. What a fragile thing!

You who come here from Montataire to entrust your renewed parish to the intercession of Saint Therese, keep this in mind: your primary task is fraternal charity, it is communion among yourselves. And on this, you can reread Saint Therese, particularly in manuscript C, to see how it is a question of loving one another by supporting one another with charity. We can also go and read Saint Vincent de Paul on what he calls “support”, that is to say the way in which we support one another with charity. This fraternal charity is a fragile seed, but one which must bear fruit.

Fear, the seed. Finally, prayer.

“Be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly like a snare. Stay alert and pray at all times.”

Le "Stand on your guard", it is taking care of oneself, being attentive. But for " Stay awake,” The Greek verb of the Gospel is interesting Ἀγρυπνεῖτε, which comes from ἀγρός, the “field” in French — which gives the word agrarian for example —, and then ὕπνος, sleep. The “sleep in the field”: this evokes the sleep of the shepherd who sleeps outside in the middle of his flock, in such a way that if the wolf comes, he can chase it away or if someone comes to steal a sheep, he can prevent it. It is therefore a vigilant sleep. Stay awake as if you were sleeping under the stars in the middle of a flock of sheep… Stay awake so that your hearts do not become weighed down by drinking, drunkenness and the worries of life. My washing machine that broke down — that is a worry of life, that! — is placed on the same level as drinking and drunkenness! How much here again, our daily difficulties can take on disproportionate proportions sometimes, as if our whole life depended on it, as if our whole salvation depended on it. It is a matter of putting things back in their place and keeping our heart attentive to the presence of God who does all things well and who takes care of us.

Advent is a time when we are invited to revive our prayer life and Thérèse is a good novice mistress for prayer. First, let us be convinced of what she says:

It is only through prayer and sacrifice that we can be useful to the Church. (July 8, 1897)

But what is Therese doing in her prayer? Oh, she explains it in several places. In a letter to her aunt, she says:

When I am near the Tabernacle I can only say one thing to Our Lord: "My God, you know that I love you." And I feel that my prayer does not tire Jesus, knowing the helplessness of his poor little wife, He is content with her good will. (LT 152 to Mrs. Guérin – November 17, 1893)

The most important thing in prayer, brothers and sisters, is the act by which we come to put ourselves in prayer, whether it be in the privacy of our room, whether it be in church in front of the tabernacle, whether it be in a chapel, in an oratory, it doesn't matter; the most important thing is the very fact of stopping and wanting to put myself in the presence of God, of wanting to make myself passive of what God wants to do in me and that I do not know. Thérèse again - and she writes this at the end of her life, since it is in manuscript C:

How great is the power of Prayer! It is like a queen having free access to the king at all times and being able to obtain everything she asks for.

And she comments by saying that, outside of the divine office, she does not have the courage to go and take prayers from prayer books:

Not knowing which one to choose, I do like children who cannot read, I simply tell the Good Lord what I want to tell Him, without making fancy sentences, and He always understands me...

“And he always understands me”, what confidence Thérèse has in God to affirm: And he always understands me!

For me, prayer is an outpouring of the heart, a simple glance cast toward Heaven, a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus. (MsC 25)

But do not believe that for Saint Therese, prayer is a moment full of joy and gladness as if she were in Heaven, no! She lives her prayer in what is called dryness. But how does she interpret this?

Just before taking the habit, at the beginning of 1889, she wrote to her sister Pauline, who was in religion Sister Agnès:

Nothing near Jesus, dryness!… Sleep!… But at least it’s silence!… silence does good to the soul… […]

And a little further:

Since Jesus wants to sleep, why should I stop him? I am so happy that he does not bother with me, he shows me that I am not a stranger by treating me like this, because I assure you that he does not spend any money to keep me in conversation!… (LT 74 to Sister Agnès – January 6, 1889)

Thérèse has such confidence in God, in Jesus, that this dryness that she experiences in prayer - that is to say, what she feels is that there is no one, nothing is happening - instead of saying: God is absent, God does not listen to me, does not hear me, what does she say? I know he still understands me and Jesus is sleeping and I'm going to let him sleep. If Jesus sleeps and says nothing to me, it means that he has so much affection for me that he believes he is authorized to do so.

What confidence! And she will pass this on to her sister Céline a few years later. Five years later, she will complete this by writing this to her:

Jesus is there, sleeping as he once did in the boat of the fishermen of Galilee. He is sleeping… and Céline does not see him because night has descended on the boat… Céline does not hear Jesus' voice. The wind is blowing… she hears it; she sees the darkness… (that is to say that Céline is struggling with many things that disturb her) and Jesus is still sleeping; however, if He were to wake up for just an instant, He would only have to "command the wind and the sea and there would be a great calm", the night would become clearer than the day, Céline would see the divine gaze of Jesus and her soul would be consoled… But also Jesus would no longer sleep and He is so tired!… His divine feet have grown tired of pursuing sinners, and in Céline's boat Jesus rests so gently.

This dryness that Thérèse experiences in prayer, she interprets it as the fact that Jesus is sleeping, that Jesus is so happy to be with her that he can sleep peacefully without being disturbed. And she understands that if he is sleeping, it is because he is exhausted from running after the lost sheep, so much so that this prayer of dryness of Thérèse is eminently missionary! She lives in her own life and in her own flesh I was going to say, this communion with Jesus in his mission.

Brothers and sisters, on this first day of Advent which prepares us to enter the year of grace 2025 of our Lord, let us make the decision to revive a life of faithful prayer: that each day, we take at least five minutes of true silence, with our phones turned off, to place ourselves in the presence of God, in the presence of Jesus, in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

God is always there, and always there in his merciful goodness for us.

Amen

Father Emmanuel Schwab, Rector of the Shrine