“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (MT 11: 28-30)
The best direction ever we can choose is to come to Him. He waits for us, He wants to help us, He is our comfort and our rest. All our “yokes” and our “burdens” with Him are easy and light.
“Behold, the Lord comes to save his people; blessed are those prepared to meet him.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.” (IS 40: 3-4)
What is today’s desert? I am afraid that it is a married life. We are busy with our business, our work, and all kind of services. We are busy with our family life, taking care of our children. We are busy taking care of ourselves, keeping diets and all kind of healthy activities, but for our relationship, there is no time. This area is like a desert. So, during this Advent, we are inspired to “in the desert prepare the way of the Lord,” spending every day a minimum of 20 minutes together and “the rough country shall be made a broad valley.”
“The day of the Lord is near; Behold, he comes to save us.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Then he asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!’ The man replied, ‘The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.’ The LORD God then asked the woman, ‘Why did you do such a thing?’ The woman answered, ‘The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.’” (GN 3: 11-13)
“The woman whom you put here with me,” and “the serpent tricked me into it” are just the same excuses, the same reaction; Adam blames God: “whom you put here with me,” Eva blames serpent: “the serpent tricked me into it,” and nobody takes responsibility for this. With God’s help, we want to change this into ownership, sometimes extreme ownership—to protect our beloved and take full responsibility for our relationship and for our future.
“Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (ROM 15: 7)
It is so important to recognize in our spouses Our Lord’s presence rather than looking for an idealistic vision for our spouses. When we see in our spouses Him, when we welcome in our spouses Christ, we come closer to each other, because with Him we can reach our full potential (created on His “image and likeness”) and we better know who we are and where we are going. Without Him in our hearts, we will try to create our spouses in our own “image and likeness.”
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, while from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or to the left.” (IS 30: 20-21)
We are never alone; we can always count on Our Lord. He is in our hearts and leads us to heaven; “a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or to the left.” Our Programs help us to open our hearts and our ears to listen to Him, because “He is who will save us.”
“The LORD is our Judge, our Lawgiver, our King; he it is who will save us.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them. The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind able to see, and they glorified the God of Israel.” (MT 15: 30-31)
We can also “come to Him” having with us all kinds of weaknesses and limits found in our relationship: our blind spots, our deformities, our mute or lame days, and many others. When we bring them to Our Lord, when we “place them at His feet,” He can cure them. He loves us in the same way that He loved those people because He is the same, He never changes; He was, He is and He always will be Our Lord.
“Behold, the Lord comes to save his people; blessed are those prepared to meet him.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” (LK 10: 21)
Sometimes we want to be very “wise and learned,” especially when we have difficult days in our relationship, and we are looking for arguments regarding who is right. We know by experience that this is the worst strategy; it makes our problem even bigger. Our Lord recommends a different strategy—be “the childlike”: open minded, always curious, forgetting fast, smiling and laughing easy, and expressing love and tenderness naturally.
“Behold, our Lord shall come with power; he will enlighten the eyes of his servants.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” (MT 8: 8-9)
Our Lord comes to our houses with His Word in the Bible. How often do we have more than just one Bible in our libraries or on our shelves? He wants to speak to us, He wants to respond to our needs, He is always ready to heal our wounds. The only thing He needs is to be opened. When we take the Bible into our hands, when we open and read, when we meditate, we can expect miracles.
“Come and save us, LORD our God; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” (IS 2: 3)
Every path should lead us to God, but in a very special way, marriage should do so. This is a unique vocation (even if it concerns so many), because it makes one two totally different people. To understand and to see clearly where we are going, we need to “climb the Lord’s mountain,” “that He may instruct us in His way” to see our vocation from His perspective, so “we may walk in His paths.”
“Show us Lord, your love; and grant us your salvation.” (Gospel Acclamation)
