Jer 33:14-16; Ps 24 (25); 1 Thess 3:12-4,2; Lk 21:25-28.34-36

Let’s go into advent in the light of this invitation to watch and pray to acquire “the strength to escape all that is about to happen, and to appear before the son of man.” The Greek verb chosen by Luke (Stathênai) describes the attitude of those who stand before someone, standing in front of him. “Lift up and raise your head,” he warned Jesus immediately before. If the story, with its tragic events, it seems to crush us, making our hearts “heavy”, the Word of God urges us to rise up and stand before the son of man, interweaving with him a relationship capable of giving a different meaning to all that we live or suffer . It is not a question of escaping who knows where, or to escape from history to take refuge somewhere, but to remain before the Lord who comes, welcoming from him a different look with which to discern in our time the “promises of good”, as Jeremiah defines , that God is making sprout in it. Stand before him is not a static but dynamic attitude, as St. Paul remembers. It means progressing more and more, and progressing in love, for the Lord and among us. There is no possible expectation that it is not nourished by love.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey