December 14 – 3rd Sunday of Advent (“Gaudete” Sunday)
When we consider the words of the prophet Isaiah chosen for this Sunday’s second reading – “The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, […] and shall flourish like the lily” (35:1) – we see how often God takes pleasure in suspending the rules He created for nature. For it is certainly not normal for a desert to blossom like a lily…
A similar image was used by Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira to symbolize the rebirth of the Holy Church in recent times, through Our Lady, as prophesied by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort:1 “The lily born in the mud, in the night amidst the tempest.” The world today – stained as it is by the mud of envy, immersed in the night of sadness, agitated by the storm of comparison – will yet see with infinite joy God’s reward, for He comes to save (cf. Is 35:4, 10).
It is up to us to fight for this rebirth. How? The Gospel shows us the way.
Few in history have represented the figure of a lily sprung up during the night as did St. John the Baptist. Amidst the decadence of the pre-Messianic period, even among the chosen people, the Precursor summed up the faith of the ancient patriarchs, the hope of the prophets and the charity of souls eager for the coming of the Saviour. He was a man of integrity – so much so that Our Lord did not spare him praise: “more than a prophet,” “among those born of women there has risen no one greater” (Mt 11:9, 11), as the Gospel tells us.
Now, since St. John’s gifts and virtues came from Jesus Christ, He did not need to praise them, for everything belongs to Him. However, the God-Man wanted to leave us the example of a forgotten virtue: admiration.
It is through the rapt contemplation of divine reflections in creatures that we prepare ourselves for eternal admiration in beatitude. As Dr. Plinio rightly observed, “when we admire something superior to ourselves, we are ultimately paying homage to God.”2
On the other hand, Msgr. João affirms that admiration “is one of the wisest ways of practising love of God in [our neighbour’s] regard”; and when society allows itself to be permeated by this virtue, “it may rightly be called the Reign of Mary, because it will be pervaded with the goodness of the Wise and Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God.”3
The envious person, on the contrary, is deeply hateful, as St. Basil points out: “Dogs become tame if someone feeds them, but the envious become more enraged by benefits and favours.”4
Those who admire are joyful: gaudete, rejoice, admire! This is the formula for the lily of the Catholic Church to flourish!
Let us ask Mary Most Holy, an exemplary admiring soul, to instil in us her enchantment with the Holy Church, its saints and prophets, its Tradition and the treasure of its eternal doctrine. ◊
Notes
1 Cf. ST. LOUIS-MARIE GRIGNION DE MONTFORT. Traité de la vraie dévotion à la Sainte Vierge, n.50.
2 CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Admiração desinteressada e inocente [Selfless and Innocent Admiration]. In: Dr. Plinio. São Paulo. Year XXIII. No. 267 (June, 2020), p.19.
3 CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. The Joy of Admiring. In: New Insights on the Gospels. Città del Vaticano-Nobleton: LEV; Heralds of the Gospel, 2014, v. IV, p.220.
4 ST. BASIL THE GREAT. Homilia XI. De invidia, n.3: PG 31, 378.
