Advent 9
Monday, Second Week of Advent
5 December 2022
I love this Advent tradition of the daily reflections from Hamilton College. Each year, they bring me back to the 3rd floor of the Chapel and fill my heart with gratitude for the many graces I received at Hamilton (2007-2011). One of the greatest blessings I received was my baptism into the Catholic Church by Fr. John Croghan at the Hamilton Chapel with Prof. Doug Ambrose and his wife Sheila as my godparents and Clare Zappen (Browne) ’11 as my confirmation sponsor. It was at Hamilton that I took the first step to say Yes to God’s will, and my life was forever changed. I have embarked on life’s greatest adventure: the incredible love story between the Creator and the creature. I am fully convinced that saying Yes to God’s call brings true happiness, and I am praying for all people, especially young people, to know what God wants for their lives and to have the grace to say Yes to God’s will.
Recently, I read in an Advent devotional booklet that says, “For the last six years the season of Advent has been expanding, slowly but surely, each time around—usually by one day, though 2020’s leap year added two.” This interesting fact makes me realize that this year 2022, we will have the joy of celebrating four solid weeks of Advent and have the longest possible days (28 days) to receive an abundance of graces to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Christ at Christmas. It is very consoling to know that God has been gradually expanding the days of Advent (with one more Advent reflection email than last year) and my heart to receive Baby Jesus more deeply into my life so that I can follow him with increasing abandonment and to identify myself with him more and more each day.
A few days before Advent, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me know which areas in my life that had been obstacles to my intimacy with the Lord. I realize that my attitude of presuming to know everything and of holding onto my own criteria of judgment and plans make me blind to the hidden presence of God in people and events. God uses people and events to help me to go to heaven and to improve my charity, but I need to humble myself and to acknowledge that I am poor and small. Baby Jesus is the smallest and the last one in the Holy Family. Therefore, I need to ask Baby Jesus to help me to imitate his childlikeness: to consider myself to be the last one in the family and to have the disposition to learn from everyone. Moreover, I realize that I have the bad habit of eating voraciously and let my lower appetites to control my thinking and acting. At the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph went on a difficult journey to Bethlehem because even their humble dwelling in Nazareth was too “luxury” for the Son of God to be born. God the Father wanted his Son, Our Lord, to be born in extreme poverty, and after many labors, after hunger, thirst, heat and cold, after insults and outrages, he might die on the cross, and all this for me. Therefore, I need to ask St. Joseph, lover of poverty, for the grace to eat slowly and attend to the wants of my neighbor at table to avoid sensuality and selfishness in eating and drinking. Lastly, I turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary who is always so serene and emotionally balanced to obtain for me the grace to have interior peace in all circumstances especially as I draw near to the end of the semester and the holiday rush.
As the Holy Family journeys towards the Bethlehem, laboring and suffering out of love for each one of us, let us ask for a miracle from them to help us to be willing to be taught like Baby Jesus, to love poverty like St. Joseph, and to be serene like the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Tongxin Lu ’11
Tongxin Lu ’11 is a member of the Crusaders of Mary, a lay consecrated community founded by Venerable Fr. Tomas Morales, S.J. She lives with her community in Washington, DC. and is a theology teacher at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, VA.
