Today
begins what is often called “Deep Advent” or “Late Advent”. Where the first two weeks of Advent focus on
the Second Coming of Christ at the End of Time, the second half of Advent
focuses on his first coming at his birth and his abiding with us.
One
of my favorite parts of this second half of Advent is that beginning December
17th, today, the
Great O Antiphons sung at Vespers. You
may have never heard of the O Antiphons, especially if you aren’t in the habit
of praying the Church’s official Evening Prayer.
The O Antiphons are seven prayers that are
recited or chanted as the antiphon before the Magnificat at Vespers from the
17th to the 23rd of December. The Church
has used these Antiphons for 1500 years!
Each one begins with the acclamation "O," and addresses Christ
by one of His messianic titles from the Old Testament, (O Wisdom, O Mighty
Lord, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn, O King of the Nations,
O Emmanuel) and ends with a heartfelt plea
for His coming.
The
hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is based on these antiphons and express our
longing and expectation for the Messiah and the grace about to be brought by
the Christ-Child into the world.
O come, thou Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily; to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go
God’s
Wisdom helps us put our lives in the proper order. We would call someone foolish who doesn’t go
to church, who ignores the commandments, who lives for pleasure, riches, fame,
or power. His priorities are not in
order. The wise man has his priorities
straight, and judges rightly the things of earth in relation to his eternal
end.
Wisdom
helps us to judge whether our behaviors and attitudes are in keeping with a
Christ like attitude or not.
In
our Gospel this morning, we heard the beautiful genealogy of Christ from
Matthew’s Gospel going all the way back to Abraham. Luke’s version of the genealogy goes all the
way back to Adam. God, in his Wisdom has
been preparing creation and preparing humanity for the birth of the savior
since the beginning.
The
fool says in his heart, “there is no God.
God has nothing to teach me.” But
the Wise Man seeks out the Christ Child, and seeks to conform his heart ever
more deeply to the will of God. For the
glory of God and salvation of souls.
LET
US PRAY that our lives may be ordered according to this Divine Wisdom, that our
priorities may be straight at the coming of the Lord, that he may find us
serving God rather than ourselves.
Come
O Wisdom, that we may not judge things and actions from a purely human point of
view, but a divine perspective, with an appreciation of the supernatural value
of even the smallest of the works of charity.
Come,
O Wisdom, help us to combat the wisdom of the world which is foolishness in the
eyes of God.
Come,
O Wisdom, help us to be detached from the things of the world, so as not to be
tempted to exaggerate their worth or guard them selfishly.
Come
O Wisdom, teach us to strive diligently in our devotion to our blessed Lord,
and enable us to follow Christ in light and darkness, consolation and
desolation.
Come
O Wisdom, teach us prudence, the most important of the moral virtues, in
governing our lives rightly, and especially in avoiding sin and the near
occasion of sin.
Come
O Wisdom, help us to love as we should.
And so we pray for the sick, the poor, the homeless, the unemployed,
those in nursing homes, hospitals, and the homebound, and for those who will
die today, for their comfort and the comfort of their families.
Heavenly
Father, hear our prayers, grant them, that our lives may be ordered by the true
Wisdom which comes forth from the mouth of God, that our lives may conform with
your Holy will in union with our expected Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who is Our
Lord forever and ever.
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