The Humility of Advent

The door to enter the Holy Season of Advent is quite low. This means that we must stoop down in humility to enter.  Advent is not a time for the proud and haughty of heart.  After all, the destination of Advent is not a boardroom, a high-powered meeting, a high-pressured pitch to buy something, or a plan to reach a goal that can be measured in statistics or mapped out on a power point presentation. Instead, Advent is a season that requires us to bow our heads and listen intently to what the Lord is speaking to us in the stillness of our hearts. The world says to us during Advent to achieve, accomplish and attain. The world demands of us, “Get it done!”  The Church says to us during Advent to listen, long for, and look for the coming of our salvation who is Jesus Christ. The Church teaches us, “Wait for Him in humble and loving anticipation.”
            
Here are ways that we can stoop down to enter into the Season of Advent.  We should

• Stoop down to enter our parish church to participate in Masson at least one day in addition to Sunday. 
• Stoop down to spend some time in adoration before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament either reserved in the tabernacle or exposed in a monstrance on the altar.
• Stoop down to enter the confessional and encounter Jesus who waits there for us in the Sacrament of Penance.
• Stoop down to help someone with the thing or the situation with which they are struggling.
• Stoop down to volunteer in our parish with the activity with which no one seems willing to assist.
• Stoop down to speak with a family member or friend that we have not spoken to for a while for whatever reason.
• Stoop down to give assistance to the person who is holding a sign pleading for help along the road.
• Stoop down to invite someone into our home to share a cup of coffee and some encouraging words. 
• Stoop down to look into the eyes of the person who we regard to be inferior to us.
• Stoop down to invite someone to come to come to Sunday Mass with us and give them a ride.
• Stoop down to search for the person who will be alone or lonely during Christmas and invite them to dinner.
• Stoop down to pick up the Rosary and pray the Joyful Mysteries , the Mysteries of the little and the humble, each day during Advent.
• Stoop down to tell others how much we love them and how beautiful they are in the sight of God.

 
In a world where everyone wants to be propped up, admired, complemented, validated, and valued, stooping down is not a popular activity. Amazingly, we find that it is only by stooping down before God and others that we come to know our true identity and our true purpose in life. We are witnesses to Love Incarnate who has found us. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God who, after all, stooped down from the heights of heaven to become one of us and, in humility went to the Cross to save. It is only in our stooping down that we can enter the stable of Bethlehem to adore the Babe who will raise us up.
 
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh