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INSTRUCTION FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT
by Leonard Goffine, 1871


In this day the Church not only makes mention in the office of the priest, but also in the Mass, of the two different advents of Christ, that by His gracious first advent we may be gladdened, and by His terrible last advent at the Judgment Day, we maybe impressed with salutary fear. With this intention she sings at the Introit: "People of Sion, behold, the Lord shall come to save the nations, and the Lord shall make the voice of His glory heard in the joy of your heart. (Isai. xxx. 30.) Give ear, O Thou, that rulest Israel, Thou, that leadest Joseph like a sheep. (Ps. lxxix. 2.) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH.Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way of Thy only begotten Son, that by His advent we may be made worthy to serve Thee with purified mind and spirit; who livest and reignest with God the Father, in union with the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

EPISTLE, (Romans xv. 4 -13.)  Brethren! For what things soever were written, were written for our learning: that through patience and the comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another, according to Jesus Christ: that with one mind and with one mouth, you may glorify God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another; as Christ also hath received you unto the honor of God. For I say that Jesus Christ was minister of the circuмcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promise made unto the fathers. But that the gentiles are to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to Thee, O Lord, among the gentiles, and will sing to Thy name. And again he saith: Rejoice, ye gentiles, with His people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye gentiles, and magnify Him, all ye people. And again Isaias saith: There shall be a root of Jesse; and He that riseth up to rule the gentiles, in Him the gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing: that you may abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Ghost.

What does St. Paul teach us in this epistle?

The Jєωs and Gentiles converted to the Christian faith were disputing among themselves at Rome, in regard to abstinence and the use of certain kinds of food, reproaching each other severely; the Jєωs boasting over the Gentiles that the Saviour, according to promise, was born of their nation, thus claiming him from the Gentiles, who, in their turn, reproached the Jєωs for the hateful ingratitude with which they had crucified Him. To restore harmony St. Paul shows that each had reason, the Jєωs and Gentiles alike, to praise God, to whose grace and goodness they owed all, that each had in Him a Redeemer in whom they could hope for salvation, and warns them not to deprive themselves of that hope by contentions among themselves. By these words the Apostle teaches, also, that we, too, have great reason to praise God and thank Him, for calling us whose forefathers were heathens to the Christian faith, and to guard against losing our salvation by pride, envy., impurity &c.

Why should we read the scriptures?  

That we may know what we are to believe and to do in order to be saved, as all scripture inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice (Tim. iii. 16.); that we may learn from that which Christ has done for us, and the Saints for Christ, to be patient in our sufferings, and to be consoled and encouraged in hope by their example. To derive this benefit from the scriptures they must be read by the light of that spirit through whose assistance they came into existence, who lives and remains forever with the Church: that is, the light of the Holy Ghost must be sought, that their meaning may be read according to the sense of the Church and not be explained by the reader's own judgment.

He who reads the Holy Scriptures merely to satisfy his curiosity, his enquiring spirit, and his quarrelsome temper, following his own private judgment in interpreting and explaining the many obscure passages, subject to so many different renderings, without considering that only the Holy Ghost, through whose inspiration the Bible exists, is and can be its only true and veritable expounder, that this Holy Ghost is working in the true Church only, and that this Church alone through the Holy Ghost, whom Christ has promised, shall remain with her for all time, can interpret them, he who without reflecting upon this reads the Holy Scriptures by the light of his own private judgment simply, must, as experience shows, of necessity diverge from the right path, become entangled in manifold doubts, and at last, lose the faith entirely. For this reason the head of the Catholic Church has most properly limited the reading of the Bible, not, as has been falsely asserted, unconditionally forbidden it, and allows the reading of those editions only which are accompanied by notes and explanations in accordance with tradition and the exposition of the holy fathers, that the unity of faith may not be disturbed, and that among Catholics there may not be the terrible bewilderment of the human "intellect which has taken place among the different heretical sects, who have even declared murder, bigamy and impurity to be permissable on the authority of the Bible. -- We are to consider, also, that God never commanded the Bible to be written or read, and that not the readers but the followers of the word of God, by which is meant those who hear the words of God in sermons, and keep it, will be saved.

Why is God called a God of patience, of consolation, and of hope?  

He is called a God of patience because He looks long on our sinful life, and awaits our repentance; of consolation because He gives us grace to be patient in crosses and afflictions, and so consoles us inwardly that we become not faint-hearted; of hope because He gives us the virtue of hope, and because He desires to be Himself the reward we are to expect after this life.


ASPIRATION. O God of patience, of consolation and of hope, fill our hearts with peace and joy, and grant that we may become perfect in all good, and by faith, hope and charity attain the promised salvation.




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GOSPEL. (Matt. xi. 2 - 10.) Now when John has heard in prison the works of Christ: sending two of his disciples he said to Him: Art thou He that art to come, or look we for another? And Jesus making answer said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me. And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitude concerning John: What went you out into the desert, to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.

Why was John in prison?

He was in prison and later lost his life, because he had rebuked king Herod for his adulterous marriage with his brother's wife (Matt. xiv. 10.). Truth, as the proverb says, is certainly a very beautiful mother, but she usually bears a very ugly daughter: Hatred. St. John experienced that speaking the truth very often arouses hatred and enmity against the speaker.-- Let us learn from him to speak the truth always when duty requires it, even at the cost of the greatest misfortunes, for if with St. John we patiently bear persecution, with St. John we shall become martyrs of truth.

Why did St. John send his disciples to Christ?

That they should learn from Christ, who was already shining by His doctrines and His miracles, He was really the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world, whom they should follow.

Why does Christ say to the disciples of St. John: "Go and say to John, the blind see, the lame walk etc."?

That they should by His miracles judge Him to be the Messiah, because the prophets had predicted that He would work such miracles (Isai xxxv. 5, 6). "Christ", says St. Cyril, "proved that He was the Messiah by the grandeur as well as by the number of His miracles."

Why does Christ add: "And blessed is he who is not scandalized in me"?

Christ used these words in reference to those who would be scandalized by His poverty, humility and ignominious death on the cross, and who would, for these reasons, doubt and despise Him, and cast Him away; though "man", as St. Gregory says, "owes all the more love to the Lord, his God, the more humiliations He has born for him."

What was our Lord's object in the questions He asked concerning St. John?

His object was to remove from St. John, all suspicion of failing in faith in Him; to praise, as an example for all preachers, confessors, and superiors, that they might never be deterred by human respect, or fear of man, or other temporal consideration, from courageously fulfilling their duties, the perseverance with which St. John although imprisoned and threatened with death, continued to fill his office of preacher; and to commend the rigorous penance shown by his coarse garments and simple food, that we might learn from his example penance and mortify our bodies.

Why does Christ say that John is "more than a prophet?

Because St. John was foretold by the prophet Malachy as was no other prophet; because of all the prophets he was the only one who with his own eyes saw Christ and could point His hand to Him, and was the one to baptize Him: and because like an angel, a messenger of God, he announced the coming of the Saviour and prepared the way for the Lord.


How did St. John prepare the way for the Saviour?

By his sermons on penance, and by his own penitential life, he endeavored to move the hearts of the Jєωs, that by amending their lives, they might prepare to receive the grace of the Messiah. For God will not come with His grace into our hearts if we do not prepare His way by true repentance.


ASPIRATION. O Lord Jesus, by the praise Thou didst accord to Thy forerunner St. John, for his firmness and austerities, grant us Thy grace to have those confided to our care instructed in Christian doctrine, and inflame our hearts with such readiness to imitate his steadfastness and penance, that we may never do that to please man which may be displeasing to Thee.




CONSOLATION IN SUFFERING
"The God of patience and of comfort, the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace in believing." (Rom. xv. 5, 13.)


The fervent and strong believe that each and every thing that happens to us, comes to us for our own good from God, and that every evil, of whatever description that befalls us, is by the will or by the permission of God. "Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God". (Eccl. xi. 14.) If we have received good things at the hand of God", (Job. ii. 10.) said the pious Job in his affliction, "why should we not receive evil?"

We should have the full persuasion that without the permission of God not a single hair of our head shall perish (Luke xxi. 18.), much less can other evil be done to us by man or devil (Job. i. ); a steadfast confidence that if we ask Him, God can and will assist us in our sufferings, if it is good for our salvation that He should do so. "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have engraven thee in my hands" (Isai. xlix. 15. 16); the hope of abundant reward in the future life which we shall merit by patience in our sufferings, "For our present tribulation which is momentary and light, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (ii. Romans iv. 17.); the thought that all complaints and murmurs against the dispensation of God are useless, and lead only to shame and harm, "Who hath resisted Him, and hath had peace"? (Joh. ix. 4.) the vivid remembrance of our sins for which we have long deserved eternal punishment in hell,--hence the well known saying of St. Augustine: ''Here cut, O Lord, here scald and here burn, but spare me in eternity"; the consideration that no other way leads to the kingdom of heaven than the way of the cross, which Christ Himself, His sorrowing mother, and all the saints had to tread. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so to enter into His glory?"(Luke xxiv. 26.) "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts. xiv. 21); finally, the certainty that sorrows and adversities are signs of God's love, and of being chosen: "Whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth, and He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth"

PRAYER IN SORROW. Oh almighty, kind and merciful God! who hast said: "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Ps. xlix. 15.), behold I rely upon Thy word and take refuge with Thee in my trouble. Give honor to Thy name, therefore, and reserve me, if it be pleasing to Thee and well for me, that all may know Thou art our only help. Amen.






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