O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

 December 24, 2024

Opus Dei

 Hello!  How is each and every one?   Happy birthday, Jesus!!! What a joyful Christmas Day!!!!  Our Savior, Jesus Christ is born today!!! Come, let us welcome Him and adore Him with His mother, Mary and father, Joseph

into our hearts in grace. 

O come, O come Emmanuel! 

He comes to bring us love, joy, peace and salvation!!! What are you and I giving Him today? I give Him my dignity, attention and devotion. I want to do what He tells me to do at every given moment of the day.  I want to spend time with Him and bring many others to spend time with Him also. I am offering to Him these hours that I am working on this post so I can publish it tomorrow in time for His birth.

The solemn opening of the Jubilee Year will be held today, December 24, with the opening of the holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.  The celebration, which will begin at 7 p.m. (Rome time), will be broadcast live on the digital platforms of Vatican News (That is, December 25, 2 a.m. in the Philippines).

Following now is the continuation of the topic on our divine longing for trust (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 8).

Adobe Stock

 Greed:  The Distortion of the Divine Longing for Trust

Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (Lk 12:15).

Aleteia

Although we ache to trust God, we often fail.  We are too afraid to trust, so we grasp at whatever we can reach that will calm our fears.  Rather than running into the perfect love of God that will cast out every fear, we run, pell-mell, toward valuables, status.  Toddlers have security blankets and adults buy securities. Both give a similar illusion of safety, but they are only illusions.  Fear is an unavoidable consequence of the Fall.  Like our pot-fallen, first parents, we are naked, and we know it.  God longs to quell our fears.  All we have to do is let him draw us closer into the safety of his arms.  He asks us to trust him, but we settle for greed.

Greed is our response to the fear that, despite the sum of his promises to the contrary, God is getting ready to drop us at any moment.  Greed distorts the divine longing for trust because by putting so many things in our own hands we can no longer hold God’s.  Greed shouts that it is entirely up to us to take care of ourselves however we can, and if that means sacrificing our dignity, our health, our relationships, and our humanity, then so be it.

Opus Dei

 Greed tells us that we can never have enough.  The mother of a good friend of mine grew up during the Great Depression.  She often told my friend vivid stories about walking home from school and passing yet another set of neighbors who had been evicted, sitting on the sidewalk surrounded by the few possessions they had left.  Although she made it through the Depression relatively unscathed because of her father’s position as the superintendent of an apartment building, my friend’s mother lived her life traumatized by the memory of her friends sitting on the sidewalk in despair.  As an adult, my friend’s mother became a workaholic who was never home.  My friend essentially raised himself because both his mother and father were too busy staying ahead of the sword that they feared was constantly hanging over their heads despite their comfortable life.  As my friend puts it, “I try to be grateful that I never wanted for any material needs, but my gratitude often gets crowded out by how much I wanted to feel that they loved me.”

Opus Dei

 The fact is, this fear is not entirely irrational.  Fortunes, no matter what size they are, can be easily wiped out.  People do suffer.  There is want in the world.  But greed tells us that we can insulate ourselves from it all.  We don’t need to trust God; we just have to work harder, and harder, and harder still; and if we can work hard enough, and hoard what we earn from our labors (no matter how little or how much that may be), we can outrun the reaper all on our own.

Opus Dei

 So, does this mean that saving money or being financially blessed is, in itself, bad?  Of course not.  The context of the parable of the Rich Fool makes that clear (Lk 12:13-21).  The rich man wasn’t foolish because he was happy that his crops did well that year or because he wanted to save what he harvested, or even because he wanted to enjoy the fruits of his labor.  He was foolish because he believed that his good fortune meant that he was so self-sufficient that he no longer had to depend upon God or be considerate to his fellow man.  That’s why the parable ends, in verse 21, with Jesus saying, “Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”  We won’t be condemned for having things; what will condemn us is our belief that those things can be our salvation.

Opus Dei

There is very little in our life that is within our ability to control, and trying to deny this by working ourselves to death, shutting people out, and keeping everything to ourselves is foolish at best and terminally destructive to body and soul at worst.

As you must have noticed all the images I chose for this post are on the many ways and means we can deal with greed which grabs us away from the main source of our security.  Love of God, gratitude, loving and trusting God and His provident care in return. 

You and I have to remember always that as you and I came from God, you and I are expected to return to Him.  But again as I am fond of reminding myself and others God will not save those of us who do not want to be saved.  God gives us everything and He takes everything also.

Reflect on the above message in the quiet moments of your conversation with God and listen to what He tells you.  Do what He tells you and you will always feel secure in Him and His love and care.

Then let it be Christmas every day for you and for me since Jesus is always with us: Emmanuel means Jesus is with us.

Moreover within the week on the 29^th, Sunday, we will be celebrating the Feast of the Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Isn’t that wonderful when they are already in our hearts in grace?  How intimately we will be enjoying their presence.  Then we can consecrate our families to them.  Let us ask them to make our families like unto the Holy Family, and grant them to receive God’s abundant grace and an unshakable happiness.  Our hopeful prayer is a duty of filial piety that we joyfully carry out today.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky