Advent: Week 2-Day 4

The First Reading from last Sunday begins with the word, "Comfort, give comfort to my people". From this passage, we have the beautiful hymn for Advent, "Comfort, Comfort, O My People". Isaiah assures us that our God is coming to bring us not condemnation but comfort. Similarly, Jesus says in today's Gospel, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

Our hearts can often be restless. We can crave rest and comfort, perhaps in a particular way during this season, but we look to the wrong sources for that comfort, ultimately to things that leave us still feeling empty or restless. Jesus comes this Christmas to give us the comfort that we crave. He comes to give us the rest that we need. Nowhere else can we find the rest that we truly desire; as St. Augustine says, our hearts are restless until they rest in Christ. We will never find true comfort or rest by indulging our appetites or by distracting ourselves with entertainment or by seeking the approval or attention of others. If we find our comfort in anything other than Christ, our hearts remain restless.

Today is the feast of St. Lucy (I wrote a blog post about her last year). She has the twofold distinction of giving her body to Christ by remaining a virgin throughout her life and by dying for the name of Jesus. This young girl had the strength to give herself so heroically for Our Lord because her comfort was in Christ alone, not anything else that the world had to offer her. And so she gave Christ everything she had.

Christ wants to give you His comfort this Christmas. He wants you to find your rest in Him alone, so that your heart will no longer be restless. He comes this Christmas to give Himself to you, but He also invites you to give yourself to Him, as St. Lucy did, holding nothing back. Only then will you find the comfort that you so desperately crave.

Pax Vobiscum