This past August, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s canonization, my husband and I journeyed with twenty pilgrims from the Seton Hall University community, walking the El Camino, or the Way of St. James, in northwestern Spain. This famous Christian pilgrimage ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Saint James the Apostle are believed to be buried. Our eighty-five-mile-long journey was quite rigorous, requiring us to hike through steep, hilly terrain. Although we endured sore muscles and blistered feet, the peace and love we experienced once we reached the magnificent Compostela, made all our physical suffering well worth it!
As we journey through this Third Week of Advent, symbolized by joy, I could not help but think of Mary and Joseph as they journeyed toward Bethlehem. St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Road to Bethlehem, reflects that Mary, in the final days of her pregnancy, certainly must have suffered much in this long journey, through hills and rough roads, but she suffered “with peace and love.”
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton echoed that very same sentiment in her journal entry today: “Let peace and love stay with you in your pains, and they will lighten and sweeten them all.” By offering our sufferings to God, uniting them with those of Jesus, as Mary did when she carried Him in her womb, we, too, can experience peace and love.
But when things are difficult, it is easier to complain than to offer them to God. Mary and Joseph could have easily spent their time complaining about their hardships. Instead of complaints, St. Alphonsus invites us to “consider all the devout and holy discourses these two holy spouses” must have had regarding the “mercy, goodness, and love of the divine Word, who was shortly to be born, and to appear on the earth for the salvation of men.” We hear this in today’s reading from the prophet, Zephaniah: “The remnant of Israel…shall do no wrong and speak no lies; Nor shall there be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue” (Zep 3:13).
This Advent, let us spiritually join the pilgrimage to Bethlehem with two pilgrims par excellence: Mary and Joseph. As we await the joyful coming of Word Incarnate, may we imitate their humility, obedience to God’s will, and holy conversations filled with praises of God. May we ask the Holy Spirit to help us prepare to welcome Jesus by using our words to welcome others with a simple hello, to offer encouragement to the discouraged, or to begin a Christmas novena for someone in need. Lastly, may we unite our sufferings to Christ, our Savior, and in doing so, may this bring us closer to His manger, and ultimately to His Cross, where we indeed experience true peace and ineffable love.
