Advent Preparation: Relinquishing Ego for Christ "Mas" (More Christ)

Advent is a preparatory journey to meet the Messiah, who is on the way.  These four Sundays during Advent season are like guiding stations on this journey as each of these Sundays has a specific theme to focus on: Hope on the First Sunday, Peace on the Second Sunday, Joy on the Third Sunday, and Love on the Fourth Sunday.  The Messiah arrives during the week of the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

A running theme for our Advent preparatory journey is penance, reflecting on these words of John the Baptist: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near (Matthew 3:2).  Of course, the coming of the kingdom is synonymous to the coming of the Messiah as it is he who brings the kingdom to save us.  Though penance is essential as our preparation to receive the Messiah in our clean heart, it is just a necessary condition but not a sufficient one to receive him on Christmas.

What is absolutely necessary, besides penance, is relinquishing our ego and whatever it generates.  Reflect this in the Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday on Cycle A (December 18, 2016) (Matthew 1:18-24) and the Gospel reading for December 20 (Tuesday of the Fourth Sunday of Advent in 2016) (Luke 1:26-38). These readings remind us that how both Joseph and Mary surrender their own desires to God’s.  The narrative of Matthew 1:18-24 clearly indicates that Joseph had his own agenda – secretly divorcing her as he found about her pregnancy even though they were not officially married yet. To this, God intervened and expressed His will to Joseph in his dream through archangel Gabriel.  Being faithful to God, Joseph relinquished his plan and aligned himself to God’s will, which is to take Mary as his wife as her “unexpected” pregnancy due to the work of the Holy Spirit by the Father’s desire to bring Immanuel  - for God the Father to be with us through this Son now conceived in Mary’s womb.  Prior to this, archangel Gabriel appeared and announced to Mary of this mysterious virgin pregnancy by the Holy Spirit, as God favored her and made her immaculate (full of grace), as in Luke 1:26-38. In response to this “surprise” annunciation, Mary was puzzled as she wondered not only how she could be pregnant without having actual physical contact with his fiancé, Joseph, yet but also how she could bear the Son of God.  Though the message of Gabriel on her “unexpected” pregnancy made no sense to her, Mary accepted it as it is, saying, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”(Luke 1:38).

Imagine if Mary and Joseph did not relinquish their own desires simply because God’s Word on Mary’s pregnancy made no sense and was troublesome enough for Joseph to plan on secretly cancelling his engagement to Mary.  Would we have received the Messiah about 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem?  Imagine if the egos of Mary and Joseph were not overcome, there could have been no Christmas as we know it – the Word could have not become flesh to dwell among us, even though God so loved the world.

As these Gospel narratives (Luke 1:26-38 and Matthew 1:18-24) are read and reflected during the week of the Fourth Sunday of Advent on Cycle A, it is important that we make sure that we, too, relinquish our own egos, as Mary and Joseph did, in order for God’s salvivic will to manifest, as it became the human flesh of Jesus, as we complete our Advent journey.  By Christmas, therefore, we must clear two necessary Advent preparation conditions: penance for clean heart and relinquishment of our egos.

Besides an unclean heart of unrepentant person,  our egos can become impedance to God’s salvific will to manifest as the adventus of the Messiah. Therefore, both our clean heart through penance and surrender of our egos to the will of God are two absolutely necessary conditions to receive Christ as our Christmas present from the Father in heaven.

If we want Christmas and the ultimate Christmas gift (grace), then, our minimum requirement in our Advent preparation is penance for cleansed heart, which John the Baptist heralded in preparing, and relinquishing our egos and free wills to God’s will, as Mary and Joseph did.

As the Messiah’s arrival is imminent on the very last leg of Advent, perhaps, we can ensure that our egos are not blocking the way of his coming, as we reflect on this prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, called “Suscipe”:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.

The Messiah will ask us upon his arrival, “Is my grace enough for you?”(2 Corinthians 12:9). Our response must be, “Yes, Lord, your grace is enough. I shall not want.”  In fact, the Father, who creates and sends, always asks: “Is my grace enough for you on Christmas?”  Of course the grace that the Father gives us on Christmas is the Messiah, His only begotten Son, out of his salvific love for us (i.e. John 3:16).

How blessed are we that the Father has chosen us to give this Christmas present: His only begotten Son, as Messiah, as Christ, as Immanuel, in the human flesh of Jesus.  Thanks also to Mary and Joseph, for surrendering their own ego-driven desires and egos to God’s will, we are able to receive this Christmas gift. Why do we have to desire anything else?

Given our Advent need to surrender our egos and to be more like what Buddhist teaches as “anatta” or “anatman”, as Mary and Joseph did, in response to Gabriel’s announcements,  we must first die not only with our sins but also with the ultimate source of sins – our egos. Otherwise, we may never have true Christmas. Perhaps, Christmas is a time of conversion, and Advent’s preparatory journey is to lead us to this Christmas conversion, reflected in these words of Paul:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

In other words, as we do well with our Advent preparation, our egos no longer live, since Christ lives in us.

Do we desire to live according to our egos in us? Or, do we desire to live according to Christ, our Christmas gift from the Father’s salvific love, in us?  Are we willing to relinquish our egos so that we can let Christ live in us?

After all, it is Christmas, which means to put more Christ in us, as Christmas is Christ  and “mas”, which means “more” in Spanish.  As we complete our Advent journey, our egos must give their ways completely to Christ for Christ “mas”.