Alvaro Garcia, LC
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Christ, our King.
Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Holy Spirit, come. Prepare me for Christmas. May my heart be a poor but welcoming manger for the Savior. I want to accompany Mary on her way to Bethlehem, in silence, with joy. Prepare me to love with all my heart the Child who is coming, so that He may receive all the affection He needs from me in a world where charity grows cold. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Savior.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 21:28-32
At that time Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said to him, ‘Son, go work in the vineyard today. He said to him, ’I don't want to‘. But then he came to his senses and went. He went to the second and said the same thing. He said to him, ’I am going, sir‘. But he didn't go. Which of the two did what the father wanted?’ They answered, ”The first.“ Jesus said to them, ”Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are ahead of you in the way of the kingdom of God. For John came to you, teaching you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw this, you did not come to your senses and believe him“.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
We are faced with two forms of relationship with God. Two sons, one apparently disobedient and the other apparently obedient. Both are beloved sons of the Father, and their relationship with him is very different. While the first has the nerve to openly oppose the Father as a wayward son, the second does have reverence for him and even calls him «Lord» instead of «Father». There is nothing negative about being ready to do the Father's will and calling him «Lord,» for Mary was very ready to carry out God's plan for her and considered herself a slave before him.
The problem is that following God is not a matter of words, but of coherence between those words and our actions. «Show me your faith without works that I, with my works, will show you my faith» says James in his letter. To follow God requires true appreciation and reverence, it requires love and trust. Today Jesus asks us: how do you live before God the Father? Do you identify with the tax collectors who suffer from a certain rebelliousness but end up abandoning themselves, or perhaps you identify more with the priests and elders of that time who promised without fulfilling their promises?
There is a third son in the Gospel, but he does not appear explicitly in these verses. The third son is the one who responds promptly to the Father and loves him totally to the point of giving his own life. The entire Gospel is the love story of the Son Jesus who, hearing the Father who sends him into the vineyard of the world, promptly goes and abandons himself completely in his arms. This is the Son with whom we must configure ourselves and who will soon arrive in the vineyard, on Christmas Day. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to identify us more and more with Christ in our daily lives.
«Yes, God comes into the world as a son to make us children of God. What a wonderful gift! Today God amazes us and says to each one of us: “You are a marvel. Sister, brother, do not be discouraged. Are you tempted to feel out of place? God says to you: ”No, you are my child! Do you have the feeling of not making it, fear of not measuring up, fear of not getting out of the tunnel of trial? God says to you: “Take courage, I am with you”. He does not say it to you in words, but by making you a son like you and for you, to remind you what is the starting point for you to begin again: to recognize yourself as a son of God, as a daughter of God. This is the starting point for any new birth. This is the indestructible heart of our hope, the burning core that sustains existence: beyond our qualities and our defects, stronger than the wounds and failures of the past, than fears and worries about the future, lies this truth: we are beloved children. And God's love for us does not and will never depend on us: it is gratuitous love. Tonight has no other explanation: only grace. Everything is grace. The gift is free, without any merit on our part, pure grace“. (H.H. Francis, Homily of December 24, 2020).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
I will take a moment to analyze how I am preparing for Christmas. How I am involving my family to receive Jesus.
Farewell
We thank you, Lord, for all your benefits, you who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
