Four Sundays before Christmas, the Church’s liturgy invites us to prepare for the coming of the Lord. It is Advent in our churches, in our homes, in our hearts. Lighted candles and lights announce the coming of the Savior. During this season, we also celebrate the liturgical solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and what may seem like a coincidence could have a deeper meaning in the plans of Providence.
In the article about this feast, I already mentioned that in Schoenstatt we often speak of the “spirit of the Immaculata” (read more here). By this, we mean that the grace Mary received, unique because of her status as Mother of Jesus, has, so to speak, the power to create an atmosphere in which we can learn to love. The unstoppable impulse that this spirit generates and cultivates is longing. That is why the Christmas season is also a time to cultivate the Immaculata Spirit. Christmas awakens in us the longing to learn to love again as Christ loves us.
Longing in the words of Father Kentenich
This morning, while working, I listened to a sermon by Father Kentenich on longing. Some ideas from the sermon inspired me; others I don’t remember. But beyond the words, I perceived the committed and warm tone with which he spoke as part of his message. The sermon was delivered on December 23, 1962, in Milwaukee (USA) and appears in volume V of the series “Aus dem Glauben leben” (Living from Faith). Some ideas from it:
“The ideal image of longing. It is not difficult for us to convince ourselves that the Virgin Mary uniquely embodied the longing… for redemption, for redeemed humanity. … The Virgin Mary stands before us, yes, at the gates of Advent her image was drawn as the image of the Immaculata, that is, as the miraculous image of the fully and previously redeemed human being.”
Longing: preparing the heart for Christ
In his homily, our founder first invites us to make the liturgy the “teacher of our life, including our interior life.” In Advent, he helps us so that “the longings he wants to awaken in our souls become ever stronger, more intense, more urgent.”
However, we all know from experience that a heart burdened with destructive emotions, such as resentment or the refusal to start afresh, has no room for the longing for true love. Without inner “space,” without the attempt to free ourselves from our burdens, it is really difficult to long for Christ.
Father Kentenich says in this regard: “How many freedoms we have lost and how deep is, therefore, the longing that at Christmas the Savior will come and make us free interiorly… How much deep longing, how much sobbing longing, how much melancholic longing resounds here!” Now, J. Kentenich asks: “Is there anything left, at least in the older generation, even if only a little, of this longing? … Is there still something left in our youth of this longing to be redeemed, redeemed from spiritual bondage, redeemed from earthly slavery, redeemed from sin, shame, and stain?”
Like Mary, becoming signs of light
“And what does the grace of redemption want to do with us? Yes, little by little, transform us into the image of the beloved Mother of God, into a shining and resplendent sign.”
During the Christmas season, our founder invites us to look again to Mary, who “from the beginning of Advent is presented to us as an ideal: as an ideal of longing and as an ideal of the fulfillment of that longing.”
There it is, yes, how could I describe it briefly? As a unique luminous sign of redemption. … And then we realize: it is a characteristic of light that, wherever it acts, it transforms everything around it into light. The image of the beloved Mother of God must shine above all before our young people, so that they may become light from the light, signs of light for their surroundings, whether they are young men or women. Let there be light! – And who will make us that shining sign? It is the grace of redemption; the grace of redemption that we hope for at Christmas in an extraordinary way for ourselves, for our community, and for all of Christianity, for the whole world.
Yes, our founder’s sermon made me reflect: the spirit of Christmas, expressed in our hearts’ longing for the Redeemer, is an unstoppable impulse to bring the Immaculata Spirit to the world, to be a sign of light wherever we are. May this grace be granted to all of us during this Christmas season!
Translation: Sr. M. Lourdes Macías
