Advent letter – 2020
The face of Jesus: the face of God and of all humanity
Vincentian Family Office
500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@amvin.org amvin.org
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Rome, 20 November 2020Dear brothers and sisters,May the grace and peace o Jesus be always with us!Te year 2020, marked with so much suffering, anxiety, and ear and the prognosis o an enormous increase in poverty throughout the world, particularly because o COVID-19, is drawing to an end. Beore us, the new year 2021 is dawning.In the present situation o distress, as in all the moments o our lives that are accompanied by suffering with various degrees o intensity, there is Somebody who lives in us, whose Spirit fills every corner o our being. He is with us always, wherever we go, whatever we do, every second o the day, waiting to come orward when we let Him. He is always ready to bring us hope where there is no hope, peace where there is no peace, meaning where there is no mean-ing, renewed aith where our aith has altered, love where hatred takes possession o us. His name is Jesus.We know that the person o Jesus is at the heart o Vincent the Paul’s identity as a Mystic o Charity and o the Vincentian charism and spirituality. Jesus is the reason or our lives and the person whose way o thinking, eeling, talking, and acting becomes our lie goal, so His prox-imity to those who suffer is the model or Vincent’s way o lie and that o those who ollow him. Never turning away rom situations o suffering and those who were wounded, Vincent saw Jesus in those who are poor and those who are poor in Jesus:
I must not judge a poor peasant man or woman by their appearance or their apparent intelligence, especially since very ofen they scarcely have the expression or the mind o rational persons, so crude and vulgar they are. But turn the medal, and you will see by the light o aith that the Son o God, who willed to be poor, is represented to us by these poor people… O Dieu! How beautiul it is to see poor people i we consider them in God and with the esteem in which Jesus Christ held them!
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o help us reflect more deeply on Jesus present in what is disfigured, this Advent I would like to propose a meditation on the icon o the Savior o Zvenigorod based on the reflections o Father Henri Nouwen. Andrei Rublev wrote the icon, also called “Te Peacemaker,” in 15
th
century Russia. Te icon had been lost but was ound in 1918 in a barn near the Cathedral o the Assumption o the Blessed Virgin in the city o Zvenigorod, Russia. Its original enchant-ment and the detailed perection o the author’s work were lost; in act, it was ound in a very serious state o deterioration, damaged and in ruins. Henri Nouwen, in his meditation on the icon, mentions the terrible state in which it was ound.
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Vincent de Paul, Correspondence, Conerences, Documents
, translated and edited by Jacqueline Kilar, DC; and Marie Poole, DC; et al; annotated by John W. Carven, CM; New City Press, Brooklyn and Hyde Park, 1985-2014; volume XI, page 26; conerence 19, “Te Spirit o Faith.” Future reerences to this work will be indicated using the initials
CCD
, ollowed by the volume number, then the page number, or example,
CCD
XI, 26.
Vincentian Family Office
500 East Chelten Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USA+1 (215) 715-3984 VFO@amvin.org amvin.org
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When I first saw the icon, I had the distinct sense that the ace o Christ appears in the midst o great chaos. A sad but still beautiul ace looks at us through the ruins o the world… o me, this holy ace expresses the depth o God’s immense compassion in the midst o our increasingly violent world. Trough long centuries o destruction and war, the ace o the Incarnate Word has spoken o God’s mercy, reminded us o the image in which we were created, and called us to conversion. Indeed, it is the ace o the Peacemaker.
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It is precisely the present state o the icon o the Savior o Zvenigorod, Jesus’s damaged and ruined ace, which I would like to propose or this year’s Advent meditation. I am attaching the image o the icon, which I invite you to place beore you as a means o entering more deeply into reflection and contemplation.
Meditation on the icon of the Savior of Zvenigorod
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o see the ace o Jesus is to see the ace o God and o all humanity.
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What do I see?
a) I see a very damaged image.b) At the same time, I see the tenderest human face.c) I see eyes that penetrate the heart of God as well as the heart of every human being.
a) Seeing a damaged image
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Te beautiul ace o Jesus looks at us through the ruins o our world.
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He asks, “What have you done to the work o my hands?”
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Te icon expresses God’s deep compassion in the midst o our violent world.
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It reminds us o the image in which we were created and calls us to conversion.
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It is the ace o a peacemaker.
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“Where there is peace, God abides.”
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Looking at this damaged image, we hear a call: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ake my yoke upon you and learn rom me, or I am meek and humble o heart; and you will find rest or yourselves” (Matthew 11:28-29).
b) Seeing the tenderest human face
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Among the ruins, the splendid ace o Jesus emerges.
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We realize that Jesus is ully acing us.
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Jesus notices us and looks directly into our eyes.
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We could be reminded o the encounter o Jesus and Peter afer Peter’s denials. “… the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word o the Lord” (Luke 22:61).
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Like Peter, we need to be reminded o:
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Our sel-confident promises
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Our ailure to keep them
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Nouwen, Henri.
Behold the Beauty o the Lord: Praying with Icons
, Ave Maria Press, 2007, pages 68 and 70.
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CCD
IX, 207; conerence 27, “Te Practice o Mutual Respect and Gentleness.”
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