The First Wednesday Of Advent.

Text is from “The Liturgical Year”.

By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

   Volume 1.

   Advent.

Jerusalem is tending to her destruction; therefore, she is losing all power, and, with the rest, the power of understanding. She no longer knows whither she is going, and she sees not the abyss into which she is plunging.

Such are all those men, who never give a thought to the coming of the Sovereign Judge; they are men of whom Moses said in his Canticle: “They are a nation without counsel and without wisdom. O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end !”

The Son of God comes now in the swaddling-clothes of a weak Babe, in the humility of a servant, and, to speak with the Prophets, as the dew which falls softly drop by drop; but it will not always be so.

This Earth also, which now is the scene of our sins and our hard-heartedness, will perish before the face of the angry Judge; and, if we have made it the one object of our love, to what shall we then cling ?

“A sudden death which has happened in your presence,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “or an earthquake, or the bare threat of some dire calamity, terrifies and prostrates you: What then shall it be when the whole Earth shall sink beneath your feet; when you shall see all nature in disorder; when you shall hear the sound of the last trumpet; when the Sovereign Master of the universe shall appear before you in the fullness of His Majesty ?

“Perchance you have seen criminals dragged to punishment; Did they not see to die twenty times before they reached the place of execution, and before the executioner could lay his hands on them, fear had crushed out life ?”

Oh !, the terror of that last day ! How is it that men can expose themselves to such misery, when to avoid it, they have but to open their hearts to Him, Who is now coming to them in gentlest love, asking them to give Him a place in their Souls, and promising to shelter them from the wrath to come, if they will but receive Him !

Oh, Jesus, who can withstand Thy anger at the last day ? Now, Thou art our Brother, our Friend, a little Child Who is to be born for us: We will therefore make covenant with Thee; so that, loving Thee now in Thy first coming, we may not fear Thee in the second.

When Thou comest in that second one, bid Thy Angels to approach us, and say to us those thrilling words: “It is well !”