The Mass of the Second Sunday of Advent is so beautiful and so rich that it is difficult to interpret the message which it brings to us. Let us do it in this way. I just try to call your attention to the three main concepts which Detroit brings to our attention. There we are called the people of sight. And the message is given to us. We hear the glory of the voice of God. And then in the joy of our hearts. And these three concepts I would like to explain. First the people of sight. We are the people of sight. We, those who are connected through teaching, through the tradition of the Church, but especially even more through the celebration of the Holy Sacraments, and especially through the celebration of the Mass, we are connected with Christ as our head, and Christ is our head, and we are his people.

[01:25]

So we are the people of Zion. And I wanted to emphasize that because you see that the concept people does not only mean unity with our neighbors, with those who surround us, with those who live in the same country, and those who have the same blood. But the word people always also involves the continuity with the past. And therefore, in our case, People is not only composed of neighbors, but it is also the descendants of the same ancestors. And that is then what makes the people, the wrong that carries from the past into this present moment, The Word of God, the message of God, the faithfulness of God, I would say the promise of God and the presence of God.

[02:36]

The people, the fact that we belong to the people outside, the fact that we are connected with Christ as our head, as our power, that is the quality. for the fact that now, at this moment, we stand in the presence and in the truth and in the mercy of God in the same way as the hymn of the Lord Jesus Christ stood when he walked here on this earth. So the idea of the people involves the idea of the presence. God is present here. Why? Because we are gathered here together as these people. We are two people gathered together in the name of God. They are our presence. So the concept and the reality of the people involves just this.

[03:42]

If we apply that to our community and to those who are with us here together in this chapel at this moment, we are indeed the people of Zion. Because we live together in the same church. We keep in it our faith. That word which has been given by God to his church, it is true, and his mercy, they live in our hearts. And as a monastic community, over and above that continuity of the Church, we have a continuity of the monastic tradition of that spiritual, that special charism, that special fullness of the Spirit which through all the ages has existed and has been given to those whom God has chosen to be, in a special way, the carrier of the living spirit.

[04:49]

And then, in this way, we hear the glory of God's words that, my dear friends, we have considered so often in the past, insisting upon the fact That Christianity, considered as a message or as the truth, is not simply a system either of thesis, philosophical truth, nor of decrees. If it were that, a hot temper leaves over a cold degree. But Christianity is not that. Christianity's move is the glory of God's voice, which is heard in the room in that image, the glory of God's voice. And that glory of God's voice is explained in this mass that we are celebrating.

[05:57]

You listen to the epistle, and there you find that mystic where all the things that were written are written for our training, for our instruction, that through patience and through the consecration of the Scriptures, we should have hope that we can stand to the written Word, And that means at the time when St. Paul wrote these words, that means the Old Testament, the books of the Old Testament. And they are written for what purpose? Not to tell us how good works came into existence and the geological ages or stages of its development. not such power of truth, but that through the patience, that means the expectation, God's love and breath, we may have the consolation of the written word.

[07:09]

The written word contains God's truth, but in which word? In the form of a promise. We should not forget that. The truth of God, which is announced to us as human, personal beings, is not a code between. But it is a promise. What is a promise? A promise is a word in which a person pledges himself. If therefore one can say an existential It is not the whole declaration of a truth that has to be accepted, but it is the gift of the person, the promise, i.e., the promise, I pledge myself to the one to whom I leave this promise. That is the reason for the tremendous dignity and the value of a promise.

[08:14]

And that also makes it such a grave problem to break one's promises, or to make promises easier, as it is done in other times, where we live so often on a superficial level, without having any real roots in the eternal truth. God's person. But this is what the promise is. The promise is this inner pledge of one's own love, of one's own treasures, of one's own being, of one's own dignity as a person to somebody who leaves the pledge who became him. And that is the way God has treated his people in the past, in the Old Testament. He promised himself.

[09:16]

And that is existential truth. That is the glory of God's voice. And then the other, mercy. Truth and mercy. Mercy is the word of God. Mostly it's that descending love through which God descends to those who are guiltless, to those who look toward out of their darkness, out of their need, for the one who gets, for the same. truth and mercy that is lowly of God's grace. And I wish, my dear friends and also brethren, in Christ that this communion of our Savior and all those who are entrusted and in fact a member of the one who takes part in that.

[10:23]

those who are entrusted to make the glory of God's voice heard, that they may concentrate on this, that they may make every possible effort to insist on the existential truth of God's sovereign flesh for our higher salvation, that they may announce the glad tidings of God's mercy. In other words, that every monk who breaks the silence May break it in order to make the glory of God's voice heard in the heart of his name, of his brother in Christ, or of the one who comes here for retreat, the ones who come here for the consolation of the scriptures. who come from the cold and chaotic world to see if we have to listen to the word of the voice of God's glory.

[11:34]

That is the only reason why we should wear the silence. Every good word that a member of the people of science speaks is really in some way a contemplation of that first word, which is, shall we say, which is equal to the scripture as a divine word. And that is the word that life depends on. That is the reason of our speaking. That actually must keep in mind. Those who are the responsibility in our community for the teaching, the doctrine, the doctrine of St. William, the evidence and all those who give him, make the glory of God's voice lifted in the hearts of those who matter to the people of South.

[12:42]

And then there is the other and the last one. When we as sinners be good with us, in what way do we realize the glory of God's Word if we listen and understand today's cups? You see, today's gospel contains that. After the promise of the epistle, which refers to the Old Testament, then brings us to the reality of the New Testament. And in that reality of the New Testament, you hear the glory of God's voice. And that is, of course, the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word of God made man. And this word we hear in two ways. One word that our Lord addresses to the disciples of St. John. And that is, I will say, the word of mercy. And you listen to it.

[13:43]

And you tell me if that is not really the voice of mercy. The blind will speak. the lame will fall, the sick will be healed, and the dead will be healed, and the dead will rise. That is the word of the Lord. That's a glorious word, isn't it? And it is a word which is addressed to the whole of mankind, to what the official calls the Gentiles, the Gentiles. all the men, the masses of the people, all who watch us, the lame and the blind and the sick and the dead and the dead. We all fall into one or the other or many of these patterns.

[14:47]

So that is then a river of mercy. It flows. And there is the other, and that is addressed to the people, to those who stand behind, to the Jews. And that is the promise of whom you think this man, St. John, is. And then, our Lord enumerates all the expectations which the people, the Jewish people, base on the promises of God. and which are obtained in the scriptures of the Old Testament. And then, whom do you want to see? Who do you expect to see if you go into the desert? A way that ends in every direction of worldly and human expectations, For a prophet, that's the key word, and there is more than a prophet.

[15:53]

And then he quotes the Old Testament. I shall send a messenger before my face, and he will prepare the way. That is the divine truth. That is the divine truth. St. John is the forerunner, and that means that our Lord who says these words is the face of God. The Word made flesh. The promise is fulfilled. The divine truth is stated in an existential way before the people of the election, before the churches. So, my dear friends, that is true, and that is mercy. And this lowly voice, then, is heard in the joy of our hearts. In the joy of our hearts.

[16:54]

That is then the last concept. And that, again, comes in such a vivid way to our realization. If we hear at this holy mass, receive this message, and they celebrate. The incarnation and the death and the resurrection of the Word of God make flesh, and it then, in holy communion, we receive the glorious voice on this day into our hearts, the presence of Christ, the one who breathed his last breath over the sacrifice of the cross in the Holy Spirit. We, the lame, the blind, and the sick, and the dead. It was him who said that we would hear, and that we would see, and that we would be able to walk.

[18:01]

And if we are dead, even, that we would come to life again in part of this glorious world that we receive in holy communion of the one who died for our sins and rose for our sanctity. So, my dear friends, that is the message of this gospel, of this second sermon. Let us then realize that we are happy members of God's people. Therefore, what we say and what we do here is not a dream, it is reality. And what do we say when we say this word? In reality, the presence of God who loves us until the end is sending a song as a propitiation for our sins, who sanctify themselves on the cross, that we may be sanctified in truth.

[19:08]

and the glory of His voice is heard in the way in which we have explained it. That the message, the voice of Christianity is the message that God the Almighty is charity, that He is mercy, that He pledges Himself with this whole divine glory and dignity to our salvation. And therefore I see nothing, no evil, no sin, no anger, anything. whatever it may be, that is not under the sway of this infinite, divine, creative God that serves, that might be made when the whole earth is covered by darkness.

[20:11]

Then, when we received that word, then we began to be interested. That is the last myth of Christianity. We are not redeemed only to be happy people, but we are redeemed to be priests. We are redeemed to offer the sacrifice of Christ. Those who hear the glory of God's voice Hear it, that through their words they may announce the glory of God. That's the last meaning of our existence as human beings. We are invited to join that divine hymn that flows. Man always, men always clothe their most beautiful dreams into the form of a play.

[21:13]

And that is so absolutely true. Because within of Christianity, in mass analysis, it is an invitation which is extended by a divine infant all to join that happy eternal dance of the deep souls in all eternity. So let us keep that in mind and let us look forward as the people of Zion, listening to the glory of God's voice and in the depth of our heart and just give thanks to that God who is the God of our hope and who fills us with all joy and with all peace in believing in the glorious so that we abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

[22:17]

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