Author Topic: The 1st Sunday of Advent by Fr. Hesse (Read 234 times)

StLouisIX · « **on:** November 28, 2021, 07:19:05 PM »

If you would prefer to have this letter read to you, go here.

You can also find the original German letter here. What follows below is a rough translation I made about a year ago with the help of a translation site I credit fully at the end of this transcript.

1st Sunday of Advent (December 1st, 2002) Lk. 21:25-33

Even before Gregory the Great, the memory of the first coming of the Lord was linked to the view of His second coming at the end of the world in preparation for Christmas. Until Gregory VII, Advent had five Sundays, in Milan today it still has six, which remains visible in the Gospel reading for the 23rd and 24th Sunday after Pentecost. Although in the urban Roman rite the real Advent began with John the Baptist (Gospel of the 2nd Sunday) (as still visible in the Homily of Gregory), the preparation for the great feast of the birth of Christ was originally begun by a 42-day fasting on November 11 (Martini). Thus the end of the world and the beginning of salvation intertwine and merge into one another, becoming a further testimony to the meaninglessness of time before God, which is also evident in the Word of Christ: "This generation will not pass away until all things are fulfilled".

This sentence, which is almost the same in Matthew, has often been a stumbling block: it was thought to be an ignorance - or even an error - of Christ, as is characteristic of the modernists, who here only stubbornly repeat the stupidity of the agnoetes whom Gregory the Great had called heretics. Although, as Gregory says, this knowledge of Christ comes not from His human but His divine nature, the unity of the two natures in the one person of Jesus also excludes any positive ignorance, which the Church also teaches as certain. St. Augustine states that it was not part of Christ's teaching task to share this day with us.

The manifestation of Christ is to be seen in two ways: First, generatio haec, this generation, is also humanity, which will be present until the Last Judgement. Further Christ speaks about the beginning of the signs of His return, to which since ancient times the destruction of Jerusalem is counted. Christ shows that this is to be interpreted in this way by assuring the disciples that they will not experience His return (Matt. 12:41, Lk. 17:22).

When will this day come? "But no one knows that day or hour" (Mk 13:32; Mt 24:36). But we do know when it will not come, for certain prophecies must be fulfilled before it does:

Some of these omens, such as the apostasy (Matt. 24:4 ff.) and upheavals in humanity and catastrophes (Matt. 24; Mk. 13; Lk. 21) have already begun, but most are still to come:

1. The preaching of the Gospel to all the peoples of the earth (Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10).
2. The conversion of the Jєωιѕн people (Rom. 11).
3. The return of Enoch and Elijah (Mt. 17:11; Apk.)
4. The appearance of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2; 1 Jo. 2:18,22; etc.)
5. The consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart and the subsequent conversion of Russia and the period of peace that will come, though "it will be late" (Fatima)

According to the curiosity and the overestimation of mankind, there have already been thousands of "quite certain predictions" of the end of the world, so again recently in several of the likewise thousands of alleged "Marian apparitions," "messages," and of course in connection with that mathematical absurdity - shared by the Pope - that the TWENTieth century would have lasted from nineteen hundred to nineteen hundred and ninety-nine. All such imaginings can be seen at this level.

"But no one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mk 13:32).

St. Gregory the Great must also serve as an example to us in this point: Pope from 590 to 604, he witnessed great catastrophes in Rome, floods of the Tiber, famines, epidemics and others. Personally, he was convinced that he would experience the end of the world as the reigning pope. A less holy pope would have let this influence his actions, but not Gregory: he prepared the Church entrusted to him for the centuries to come, not only through his many reforms and legislations, but also through his tireless teaching, in which there is hardly a trace of this error of his. On the contrary, he reformed not only the chanting of the church but also the liturgy (station churches, mass texts, etc.), took care in an almost prophetic way of the consolidation of papal authority and church administration, fought against simony and heresy (Donatists, Nestorians, Manicheans, Arians), converted the Lombards, sent missionaries to Spain, Gaul and England, and promoted monasticism, to name but a few.

It is clear from his life that Gregor would never have forgotten, out of curiosity or wrong self-assessment, the most important fact of our whole life: the personal judgement. Even IF we knew when exactly the Last Judgement would take place, we do not know when we will die. From the dogma of the Church that the soul enters purgatory, heaven or hell immediately after death, the existence of personal judgment necessarily follows logically.

WE HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF THIS PERSONAL JUDGEMENT, NOT SOMETHING THAT IS NONE OF OUR BUSINESS! None of our business? Yes! God does not want us to know the date of the Last Judgment, so it is none of our business, even if a thousand self-appointed seers seem to know it. The devil only wants us to neglect our own life of grace out of curiosity about things that do not concern us. It would be foolish to lose eternity for the knowledge of the end of times. God wants us to love Him, to be interested in Him; he wants us to love Him more and more, to know more and more about Him, His creation, and His work of redemption, but He wants the thirst for knowledge that comes from love, not curiosity, which only boredom can satisfy.

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away," concludes the Gospel of today. With this sentence everything is said. We belong to eternity, not to time, but we must make the words of Christ our life in time in order to continue to hear them in heaven. Let us remember this before this Advent becomes again only a worldly preparation for the festivities of Christmas.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Author Topic: The 1st Sunday of Advent by Fr. Hesse (Read 234 times)

StLouisIX

The 1st Sunday of Advent by Fr. Hesse