Community stable

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Meditation on Tuesday, 2nd week of Advent, year B1

In this year’s retreat, we asked ourselves a lot of questions, which probably arise from the need of the heart and a life in holiness before God. We would like to be pure, holy, separate from sin, and we discover that we are weak, that we err, that our sinful nature often wins. Quote from Isaiah “Why, O Lord, do you allow us to err …?” (Is 63:17) is poignant. It is rather a cry or a question, or even an invitation to seek the sense of this error.

The New Testament reveals to us the truths that communicate this error to us somewhat differently than the Old Testament, which is the cry of the people, often enslaved because of their sins. The New Testament shows us a different reality, it shows us life in Christ. The New Testament authors make it clear to us that holiness is not the result of our godly life but of God’s work in us. It is the Holy Spirit who indwells us that makes us experience change, purification, “deification” from a sinful man into a child of God. “For the wages of sin is death, and the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).

The Old Testament pointed to a search for God, a relationship with Him, and gave a law that defined God’s requirements for his people, requirements that no one could meet. The law, which pointed to the holiness of God and the reality of God’s kingdom, also showed our sinfulness and impotence. The apostle Paul discovered, like most people reborn of God, at some point in his life that he is powerless against sin that leads to death. He showed us that spiritual regeneration destroys death: “For whoever died has become free from sin. Well, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, knowing that Christ rising from the dead does not die anymore, death no longer has power over Him. Because he died, he died to sin only once, and because he lives, he lives for God. So also you understand that you died to sin and that you live for God in Christ Jesus ”(Rom 6: 7-11).

We died with Christ and we live in Him. This is the work of Christ to save those who seek him through his death. Not those who follow religious rites, liturgies, prayers and whatever, but those who seek Him with all their hearts. “And when you look for me, you will find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will reveal myself to you, says the Lord, and I will change your fate. (Jr 29,13-14a)

It is the essence of grace to cling to Jesus. We have everything in him. “In him he chose us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him; in love, he destined us to sonship through Jesus Christ according to the will of his will, to glorify his glorious grace which he has bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he has generously bestowed on us in the form of all wisdom and prudence “(Eph 1: 4 – 8).

So we died to the law of sin and found eternal life in Christ, He is the guarantor of that life. Our birth in God often takes place in dramatic circumstances, similar to those in the stable in Bethlehem. It is there, not in a beautiful house, palace, castle or elsewhere, but among animals, in solitude the Son of God is born. His mother, an ordinary Jewish woman, a young girl who said “yes” to God, now sees the fruit of God, surrounded by the shepherd children, her husband, angels and ordinary people who were brought by amazing phenomena noticed only by them. Similarly, in our lives we want to deserve God’s grace, we strive and fulfill religious rituals and we think that thanks to them we will reach heaven. And the Lord wants to come to the stable of our life, which we want to mask and keep saying: “Lord, but my life is good …” No, everyone’s life is a stable, but a stable in which the Lord Jesus can be born. He will turn that stable into a life dedicated to Him, not because of what we will do, but because of what He has done. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should last – so he will continue his work in us, and his work on us will not cease” (Jn 15:16).

In our community there are people who have recently experienced the new birth, people who have led a life, we would say, normal, even full of sacrifice. But when the Lord touched these people, when they began to experience a new life in Him, it was only then that they realized that their life so far was indeed a stable. Others would probably say, “No, you were ok, what do you mean?” But such a reborn person knows that what he now has in Christ and what he experiences has no counterpart in anything of this world. It is like the clusters of angels seen by a few in Bethlehem. It is this atmosphere of God’s presence and love that reigns over the stable and in the stable, the image of which today should be a community. She is supposed to be such a stable that attracts with the presence of the Lord, which does not have to be beautiful, but what is most important in her is the presence of God.

It is in the community that we are to be safe from the Lord’s face, to leave our sins at His feet. It is He who washes our feet. It is there that we find people like themselves who love the Lord above all else. It is there that we can find encouragement and joy, love and faith, compassion and help. A community is a family in which God is the Father and Jesus is our brother and friend. There the Holy Spirit is our teacher and the one who introduces us to the presence of God, and also the one who serves and changes us. It is not us who have to change into a model, but it is God who changes us so that we fulfill His will and intentions in love. Sin was buried with the body in baptism, which is the seal and confirmation of our rebirth, of the conscious choice of Christ in our lives. It is the closeness of Christ that guarantees us that we will not go astray, and even if we go astray, the Father watches over us.

So let’s not be ashamed of the stable, because that’s where our family is, that’s where our life is. Let no palace deceive us and draw us in such a way that we replace the presence of God in our lives for the lack of it for the glitz and trinkets of our delusions about God and the Church.