Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

3rd Sunday of Advent (December 11, 2005)

Readings Is 61: 1-2a, 10 -11 (Ps) Lk 1:46-50, 53-54 1 Thes 5: 16-24 Jn 1: 6-8, 19-28

Suggested Emphasis

"May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness."

"The Lord will make justice and praise spring up before all nations."

Salesian Perspective

Here again we hear the challenge to live a holy - a devout life - and in so doing to be "preserved whole and entire, spirit, soul and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Holiness speaks of integrity: that is, holiness is the experience and process of integrating all of who we are and placing all of who we are (especially our time, talent and treasure) at the service of God and one another, mindful of a God who is always with us. To live life in a holy way is all about bringing the whole of who I am to all that life offers me.

People of integrity recognize that in the absence of justice, there can be no true, lasting peace. Advent calls us to recognize that the most powerful means of making God's peace real in our lives is by relating justly with one another, i.e., giving others their due.

The essence off justice is to recognize the obligations that we owe one another in love. What do we owe one another? In the mind of St. Francis de Sales, these would include reverence, respect, courtesy, patience, honesty, and generosity. Francis de Sales wrote powerfully to this obligation in his third part of the Introduction to the Devout Life, Chapter 36: "Be just and equitable in all your actions. Always put yourself in your neighbor's place and your neighbor in yours and you will judge rightly. Imagine yourself the seller when you buy and the buyer when you sell and you will sell and buy justly. You lose nothing by living generously, nobly, courteously, and with a royal, just and reasonable heart."

We do, indeed, lose nothing by living justly. But consider the flip side of that coin: by living justly we gain a great deal, i.e., the richness that comes with the struggle to be people of integrity, an integrity that challenges us to strive for the peace that only heaven can perfect by working together as best we can for justice here on earth.

To be sure, we believe that the Lord will indeed make justice and praise spring up before all nations. Likewise, we know that each of us has a role to play in the Lord's plan for achieving this.

Are we ready?

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS is Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.