The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1955-12-09
Just Among Ourselves
'sssins Comment considsrsd or Ineonsider.t.

Each of these prayers furthers the advice of st
Paul, read to us at the beginning of this season
of expectation, 1T is time for us to rise from
sleep" The prayer for each of three Sundays OF
Advent begins with the strong word, Stir up
-" or Rouse up
On the first Sunday, the prayer is 'Rouse up
Thy power we beg Thee Lord, and come so that
we may deserve in Thy care to be taken from
the threatening peril of our sins and rescued by
Thee unto salvation"
For the second Sunday of Advent, the prayer
is this: Stir up our hearts, o Lord, to prepare
the way for Thy Only Begotten, that through His
coming we may be fit to serve Thee with souls
cteansed from evil"
On the third Sunday Of Advent, the Church
prays Incline Thine ear, we beg Thee Lord
unto our prayers, and drive off the darkness
of our minds by the grace of Thy coming
On the Fourth Sunday we return to the
'rousng" cry, and pray: Rouse up Thy power
we beg Thee Lord and come; rescue us in Thy
mighty strength, that through the aid of Thy
grace till now blocked by our sins, the favor of
Thy mercy may come quickly"
Strong expectation, eagerness Of longing,
holy desire both that Our Lords Birthday may
come and that we may we worthy in soul to eel
ebrate il properly-theSe the hallmarks of
this holy time Of Advent On the hand, we
do not, in this season, try to celebrate Christ
before ii gets here; the other, never
for moment lose sight of Christmas and we find
the thought of it an inspiration to the necessary
work we have in hand, the work of freeing our
souls from sin and advancing them in the tender
love of God-made-Man.
All this makes clear the fact that Advent is
time of both penance and joyful desire There
is nothing, in THIS penance, of the sor-
that marks the penitential time
of Lent. Nor is there in our Advent Joy the glory
of completion and fulfiment that belongs to
the Resurrection and Easter Day Advent longs to
the work of our Redemption actually started
Lent looks on, through deep sorrow, to see that
work most gloriously completed And the end
which is enyisoned in either season sets the
tone of the time, and determines the character of
our spiritual disposition.
This time of preparation and desire for Our
Lord is an important one in its own right, that is,
as time of expectation, not time Of cele-
bration We may know its Importance when we
consider that the season it commentaries lasted
four thousand years. We must not lose the les
son which is impressed under Providence, by
this great historical fact Learning the lesson, we
look on TO Christmas; we do not try to celebrate
that Feast in anticipation. Advent is Advent
not Christmas.
People sometimes ask land unthinkng per
sons have repeated the question through many
centuries) why the Redeemer did not come at
once TO mankind after Adams fall, without
long period of delay. They say, quite mistakenly
that since the Redeemer was promised, since it
Gods will to become Man to save us, the
Incarnation ought to have happened right away
that is, as soon as the human had need of it,
St Thomas Aqunas says that fallen man needs
penance and the awareness of his need, or the
Redemption would be done in vain. Fallen man
was, by the first sin--whch infectS all human
nature saving any God chooses to exempt-made
dull of mind and slow Of will to choose true
good II the Redeemer had come Immediately
after the first sin, none of us would have had
any real sense of SIM" none of us would have
realized the need of watchfulness and selfcon-
troll TO avoid it, In word if the race did not
learn "the hard way" something of what had
been lost by sin, mankind would be in no condi.
tion to appreciate the Redemption to take ad
vantage of It,
Hence we see the wisdom of the long delay
in the coming of the Redeemer. The holy proph
cts foretod that coming and said il was to be
"in the midst of the years" That u.s. il was not to
come either too soon or too late. Not too soon,
lest mankind have no real understanding of its
own great loss by reason of Adams fall not
too late, lest the ardent longing for the Re
deemer should turn to bleak disappointment, and
even to despair.
The Christian mind and heart know very
we'll that Gods Providence works perfectly
God moves from end to end nightly and dis
poses all things kindly" The child of the Faith
understands that Our Redeemer came al e1dctly
the right moment, the moment best suited for
human needs the moment that makes the Re-
demption most effective for our souls.
The true religion came into the world in
stantly when God stirred our first parents TO
contrition and promised the Redeemer. The Cath
Ollie Faith is the fulfillment in very fact OF the
faith of the pstriarchs and prophets. The New
Testament is the fulfllment of the Old, and
replaces H. The time from Adam to Our Lord
looks forward TO the Redemption the time
since the first Christmas looks at the Redemption
as present The faith that looked forward to
Chrst's coming is fulfilled in the faith that
Him here.
This explains why all the rites and cere-
monies of the Old Law mot the changeless moral
law have ceased TO be binding or to have mean
ing for the present hour. Like promssory note
that has been paid, the old ceremonial law binds
man no longer; IL meant promise and expeeta
ton. the promise is rounded out in full
fllment and the expectation has been realized
fact - sx hat n De-, srS utn