The Monthly Note
January 2008
Anticipation
by Fr. Jacques Sylvestre, OP
A very long anticipation :
Adam, Eve,
They waited so long
The object of the promise :
«I shall put enmity between you and the woman. it will bruise your head and you will strike its heel. » (Ge.3)
One after the other,
In spite of history’s darkness,
the events’ tragedy,
the despair that moved in,
the de rooting of tall trees,
the disappearance of species,
the end of all dreams.
Patriarch, seers and prophets,
They took over hope,
fashioned anticipation,
the words of the promise
with words full of life:
He come, he will come:
«Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel: God with us and for us.» (Is.7)
« But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent.< For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you.» (Wisdom 11, 23-12, 2)
When the moment will come,
the moment wanted by God,
a cry in the mountain :
«And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me
Blessed are you who believed!
Most blessed are you among women! » (Lk 1)
Mary, she that listens to the Word
And puts it in practice.
« I’m waiting for Him, said the dying woman,
the Word on His knees,
He will not come as a thief
But as love that we are waiting for.»
I know, a day will come,
The One that has loved me so will come,
and I will join the procession of lovers,
of unpretentious, of modest, of blessed,
to sing with the angels :
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests
Jacques Sylvestre o.p.
