The Christ who incarnated Himself in Our Lady now wants to be incarnated in our lives. Like Saint Joseph and Our Lady we must walk along the roads of our earthly life, attentive to the presence of God, to His will. Our vocation is to remain amidst men, and yet as not being in it, because we are also led by a real but invisible Presence.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
To the slow rhythm of a donkey ride, walking in a cloud of dust among a crowd of people, a poor husband and his wife, obviously heavy with child, go to Bethlehem. As do all around them, they obey Augustus’ decree ordering them to go to their town of origin to be counted.
And yet, a somewhat attentive glance would have soon noticed that they are very different from those around them. Their simple, reserved attitude radiates nobility and distinguishes them amidst this noisy and variegated crowd.
Seized by the mystery of the love of God, Saint Joseph and Our Lady do not walk as their travelling companions do.
They are led by God and they obey Him rather than Augustus.
Thus they walked, Saint Joseph and Our Lady, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and in the same way we must walk along the roads of our earthly life, attentive to the presence of God, to His will, carried out by means of secondary causes, sometimes terribly ordinary.
Our vocation is to remain amidst men, belonging to our times while we are in the world, and yet as not being in it, because we are also led by a real but invisible Presence which we receive from a higher light, the light of Faith.
It is not a question of making up an external attitude, which would be ridiculous, the unhappy proof that we think ourselves above others, that we live out of pride and not by God.
It is not a question of manufacturing an outdated and somehow artificial personality, but of imitating Saint Joseph and Our Lady in their journey, by allowing ourselves to be seized by the presence of God.
The Christ who incarnated Himself in Our Lady now wants to be incarnated in our lives.
By baptism and all the sacraments that we receive, Christ takes possession of our intelligence and will. He wants to lead us to Heaven by the way that His parents first opened, the way He Himself admirably marked by His total submission to the will of His Father, the way that all the Saints have followed and which we must, in our turn, also follow.
Amidst the crowd of indifferent men who wander without goal and are, at best, satisfied with obeying the decrees of the new Augustus, let us enter into the way that leads to Bethlehem and whose starting point is not only Nazareth but especially the “Fiat” pronounced by Mary and then repeated by Joseph.
Led by a faith that enables us to abandon ourselves to the invisible Presence of God, animated by a hope stronger than our vain reliance upon ourselves, elevated by a charity that nothing can unsettle, neither the length of the road nor the inevitable and multiple inconveniences of the journey, we follow in the footsteps of Christ.
Let us enter resolutely into this way traced by Christ, traced by His blood. Christ came to redeem us and invites us to join Him.
The road to Bethlehem is already that of Calvary. The spirit of total surrender in the Cross cannot exist without the spirit of childhood of the Manger.
Without the “Fiat” of Mary, there cannot be participation in the redemption.
Following the liturgy of Advent, which invites us to it, it is time now for us to pronounce this liberating “fiat.”
Christ invites us to follow Him, to leave the prison of our selfishness so as to enter into the path of adoration.
“If we knew how to adore, nothing could truly disturb us. We would go through the world with the calm of the great rivers” (Saint Francis of Assisi).
“Venite, adoremus Eum” – “Come, let us adore Him.”
Holy and happy Christmas,
In Christo sacerdote et Maria.
Fr. Yves le Roux
P.S. The ordinations to the priesthood will take place a little earlier next year. They will be on June 13, 2014.