The last Sunday of this year’s Advent is the first day of celebration. Advent ends. Christmas begins. Four candles are lighted on an Advent wreath. It’s not a decoration, it’s a clock reminding us of how great gift the time is. We live in time. No moment comes back. Every hour is a gift and a task. Each day brings new challenges and new grace. New hardships and new joys. How much do we respect our effort? No doubt a lot. But if the time would not be given to us, it would not be anything. Together with time and its passing, everything is a gift. We can multiply and improve this gift.
Therefore, when something ends, something also is a beginning. That is why Christians should be happy. What is the biggest gift? The time? No. The biggest gift is the coming of God’s Son in the time and the space of our earthly history. It was announced by the prophets. The biggest gift is that God the Father gave us His only Son, and the Son gave himself. Since that time we start to count passing of years. It is not an important mistake of time – the reference point itself is important: the day on which God said His “yes” and Mary replied “yes”. Soon she went on the road and went with a hurry to Elizabeth, carrying th Mystery yet invisible to eyes. Many people passed the young Miriam carrying Jesus’ already conceived. How many of them felt that this beautiful and smiling girl is not someone ordinary? How many felt the presence of God?
For sure Elizabeth: Blessed you are among women! – she cried – Blessed fruit of your womb! She guessed by herself? No. This is the third gift of God: the evangelist says that the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth. I would like to have a heart as sensitive as she, so I wont miss the biggest gift. To not miss the moment when Jesus will stand at my door. I need the gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith is not naivety. On the contrary – the naive is that it seems that everything can be explained and prove. We know that the faith is God’s gift. So you can always multiply it. You can also, unfortunately, turn off this spark of faith, and to lose the gift. While a man lives, while the time of earthly life flows, while we light up further candles on an Advent wreath, while you can free yourself from naivety and self-confidence – there is a hope to ignite the spark of faith.
The last days of Advent, are for Christians, for me and for you, days of gratitude: to God of Father – for giving us His Son. To God the Son – for the fact that He wanted to be one of us… that He had a mother, a donkey, Bethlehem … and after years – the cross, to actually be one of us to the very end. To God the Holy Spirit – for the fact that with a gift of faith, He allows us to see further than the most courageous human expectations. The days of great gratitude are about to begin …