Welcome to Living Seasons of Change, the program that will guide you through the Church’s liturgical year. Each liturgical season is a map for following The Way of Christ. Today’s program discusses the start of the Church’s New Year during year C of the Church’s 3 year cycle of readings from scripture. It begins with the Season of Advent, the Season of Holiness. Holiness is restored to mankind through the coming of the Savior. Liturgy gives spiritual exercises for holiness. This episode provides a fresh look at our need for holiness and how the Church responds to our need through the Advent liturgical readings. The host of Living Seasons of Change is Patti Brunner. Her co-host today is Msgr. David LeSieur a priest of the Diocese of Little Rock. For the script from the original broadcast or the liturgical readings of these Sundays please continue reading. You can access this post at www.patriarchministries.com/Dec-C
December C – Advent audio link: Listen to Season of Holiness
Script from Original Broadcast on KDUA-FM December 2006
Patti Brunner: Welcome to Living Seasons of Change! I’m Patti Brunner and my co-host today is Monsignor David LeSieur. Dear listeners, if you find yourself burning the Advent candle at both ends this week, you are right on target! We Catholics are celebrating the last and the first month of the year at the same time! The Church has gotten a jump start with its calendar because the Church’s New Year begins with the first Sunday of Advent. So, may I be the first to say to you Monsignor: “Happy New Year!”
Msgr. David LeSieur: That’s right, Patti. We begin the new year of liturgical readings on the First Sunday of Advent which is four Sundays before Christmas. It takes four weeks to prepare for Christmas and about two weeks to celebrate it. To me, Advent is a really good time for us to reflect upon our place in modern society. Modern society wants to sell and to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact, I love to go into the stores like Dillard’s around Christmas, because the decorations are just beautiful. They’re drawing us to spend money but they’re imitating the splendor of God. Reflecting on the splendor, of what this whole season means, helps us to remember that Advent is a season; Christmas is a season. I encourage people to keep their trees up until the end of the Christmas season through the Epiphany to the Baptism of the Lord, which is about two weeks after Christmas Day. If it weren’t for the Church, there would be no Advent. And we need this time as members of a society that is secular. We need the time that the Church offers us to prepare for the celebration of Christmas. Not just the gift giving, but the real reason for the commemoration of Christ’ birth and all that means.
Patti Brunner: How does the liturgical season of Advent do that? Days of preparation-similar to: Coming of the Messiah, Coming of the Christ child/baby, 2nd Coming,
Msgr. David LeSieur: Advent tries to copy the spirit of waiting of the Old Testament Prophets. This Advent we hear from Jeremiah, Baruch, Zephaniah, and Micah who lived 600 to 700 years before Jesus was born. The prophets warned people. They help us prepare for the day of judgement and death and for the ways God comes to us today. They spoke to the people longing for salvation. Usually the first part of Advent is given over to the second coming. The last Sunday of the church year, just prior to Advent, “Christ the King”, is preparing for the “End Time” and the first Sunday of Advent continues that theme. And then we get more into remembering to celebrate his birth.
Patti Brunner: So, starting with the first Sunday of Advent, we hear of the 2nd coming of Christ? I guess that gives us a clue to why Jesus was born. It seems a little odd to prepare for birth and death at the same time! When I prepared for the birth of each of my three daughters, it was all about bassinettes and baby powder. And, although my husband probably looked down the road at funding their college education, I was focused in the “now”. It sounds like the Church is trying to get us to look at the big picture of the coming of Christ. It’s a lot more than just a baby being born in a manger. This baby is our savior!
Msgr. David LeSieur: We need a savior. St. Paul said in Galatians, “if you can justify yourselves, Christ died for no purpose.”[i] But we cannot justify ourselves; there’s no way we can. When we reflect upon the story of the fall in Genesis, which we read during the December 8th Holy Day liturgy of the Immaculate Conception, we see the introduction of sin in the world.
Patti Brunner: When Adam and Eve were created they had communion, a complete connection with God. But when they sinned, the connection was broken. Sin separates us from God. Once, when my husband and I moved to take a new job, immediately, he had to travel out of town. We didn’t have a phone yet. He still loved me, but for the first time in our married life, we were totally apart. My toddler, Cassie, didn’t understand it at all. She started sleeping outside my bedroom door. She thought he was coming in after she had gone to bed and left before she woke up. Sometimes, we don’t understand the separation from God just like my daughter didn’t. In fact, sin distorts our understanding of God. [CCC 399] [ii] The problem is man’s lack of holiness. God still loved us, but sinful man cannot be joined with God.[iii] No matter how many times my daughter slept there in the floor, she could not be with her daddy, until he returned to us. Jesus came to return us, restore us to God, our “A-bba”, our daddy.[iv] Jesus became man, and in his holiness, restored the connection between God and man.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Adam and Eve were innocent. The moment they ate from the fruit of the tree, they gained a knowledge of good and evil that I think God did not want them to have yet. To me, it is very similar to two young kids, who through lack of wisdom, experiment sexually. They gain this knowledge that changes their relationship. You know kids fool around, they get pregnant, it just changes everything and they’re not ready for that yet. I think the lack of holiness we experience may come because Adam and Eve were trying to be God. That was the temptation “oh you won’t die, you’ll just be more like God, if you eat the fruit of this tree” and I think the root of any temptation is self-determination and wanting to be like God. If we sin, we can never regain our innocence again unless it’s made possible by God. I think one of the beauties of the Catholic theology is that we believe that baptism radically changes us. We are born in Christ, included in his death and his resurrection, and we are changed radically inside by Baptism.
Patti Brunner: Yes we are. How can we get better connected to Christ this Advent? Msgr., I know that as a priest this season is really busy for you and it’s really busy for families too because of shopping, getting ready for the holidays and cleaning the house to get ready for company.
Msgr. David LeSieur: You can extend that and ask “in what ways am I cleaning my own house to get ready for the Lord?” We can let busyness of the season, which is physically busy with shopping and so on, become for us a reminder of our own preparation for the coming of Christ.
Patti Brunner: That’s a great idea! The readings of the Third Sunday of Advent also give us a key. When the tax collectors asked John the Baptist what they should be doing, he instructed them to quit cheating. He also tells us if we have two cloaks, we must share one of them with the person who has none. Within a few words, we understand to be obedient to the law, but to go beyond that to help others.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Anybody can be charitable. Even an atheist could be charitable, if they have two cloaks and give one away, that is good; there is certainly nothing wrong with that. When you have the Holy Spirit, somehow investing that action of giving away a cloak becomes God’s action. It is like you and God are one, and when you give away something to somebody, because the Holy Spirit has led you to do it, that is God giving it to that somebody through you. Good actions are important and good, but I think they have to be vested or claimed by the Holy Spirit.
Patti Brunner: Just like the Third Sunday’s letter to the Philippians. We are reminded to “Rejoice!” And then one of the hardest lines in Scripture shows up: quote: “Have no anxiety at all!” unquote. These words are so simple, but they are not so easy! I remember a time that I was worrying about my daughter when she was a young teen. She experienced two major disappointments that took her down a murky road. As I prayed, I was giving her problems to God, but I was hanging on to the anxiety and I was miserable. Then, I heard the Lord say to me, not to worry, that even though things were rough for her she was safe in his hands and she was building her witness.
And I let go. I entrusted her to God. He certainly loves her more perfectly than I do. Once I trusted God, I had peace in my heart. Her life took a little while to straighten out, but it did, in a beautiful way. True to his words, she has used that difficult time in her life as a powerful witness to other teens and adults. With trust in God, I find a reason to rejoice even in hard times! So when you ask yourself this Advent: What fills my life? Let your next question be: Am I worrying? Am I rejoicing in all things? Does my life please God? Is God in my actions? I have found that following the first commandment helps me stay in line with not just the Advent Gospel, but all the teaching of Christ.
Msgr. David LeSieur: The first commandment in the book of Exodus says: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” [v] [Exodus 20:2-5, cf Deut 5:6-9]
Patti Brunner: God wants us to put all our trust in him. If we start trusting in our job to provide or even serve our family before serving God, we will drift away from him. Now, don’t misunderstand me. Family and jobs are very important. But nothing is more important than God! Once we put God first, everything else falls into place.
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Patti Brunner: The theme of the Lord as our bridegroom helps us to understand God’s love. What does a bridegroom desire: To be loved, to take care of and provide for his bride. To be assured that she has “forsaken” all others. He wants there to be no barriers to restrict the fullness of their union. His passionate love draws him to want to be one with his beloved. And so does God. Holiness is God’s bridal gift to us. Holiness allows us to be intimate with God. Accepting and obeying the first commandment leads us to holiness. God’s love, unlike human love, is everlasting and unconditional. God will never “fall out of love” with us. Can we disappoint? Yes. Can we turn our backs and reject him? Yes. Just like the sin of Adam and Eve, we can separate ourselves from the fullness of God’s love.
Msgr. David LeSieur: In the book of Hosea, God says “I will bring you back to your early love for me”, God says, “I will take her to the desert, “I will allure her.[vi]” When the people of Israel were in the desert after leaving Egypt, after the golden calf of course, it is considered one of the best times in their lives as the people of God. It’s like God considered that time in the desert as their honeymoon. He had Israel to himself; He did not have to share her with anyone. There wasn’t much out there to distract them. When they got to the Promised Land, when they get to the land of Cana, there were all these gods of Cana that were so tempting.
Patti Brunner: I have never thought of it that way. Usually I think of a desert experience as negative.
Msgr. David LeSieur: The desert is where John the Baptist cries out; it seems to be where John got his power. Jesus got his power after 40 days of desert retreat. There something about looking at Advent as a time of recommitment to God. Like a re-engagement to God. In the simplicity, if you think about it, two people that are in love are in the desert. It’s just the two of them there. The real world is the two of them and they are so locked in on each other they don’t notice much else. At some point they lose that, they have to just by necessity, but when it wears off, hopefully, they have real commitment there. In a way, when God calls us, we are really falling in love with God. We are in a little desert with God where he has us to himself, and then, eventually, he shares us with our other responsibilities and other people in our lives. You know, it could be the theme of Advent, where John is in the desert, crying, “make straight the way of the Lord” and we are trying to find in these weeks of Advent that awareness of God’s call to us, to recapture that sense of being married to God or engaged to God, and we are excited about it. And we can’t wait to be married to God. I guess that would be baptism. Advent is a time to recall that, to recall those days of innocence and to try to recapture the grace of innocence. So we can live in a world that is not innocent.
Patti Brunner: Listeners, tell me, what would happen if your spouse reached to kiss you and you asked him to wait while you finished a dozen activities? What if you never spent time together? What if you never thought of your spouse or did anything for the benefit of your spouse. What if you didn’t trust your spouse? The marriage would crumble. Is that what has happened to your relationship with God? Do you ever focus on him?
Msgr. David LeSieur : When spouses quit making time for each other, that’s when they need a Marriage Encounter; it is couples who have been together for years and might not remember how. They get in these ruts when they are busy raising the kids. You know, they’re working 60 hours a week. Sometimes you just have to stop and make a decision “we’re going to do this. We’re going to change our lives to spend time together”. Spending time with God is changing your lifestyle. Anybody can get up in the morning, take a shower, read the newspaper, have a cup of coffee, eat breakfast, go to work, get home in the afternoon tired, read the paper, have supper, watch a little TV and go to bed, and God never entered that picture.
Patti Brunner: Maybe this Advent you could set the paper aside and pick up your bible! Advent can be thought of as a Marriage Encounter with God. It is a time to reset your priorities toward the top focus of your life—to love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and with all your strength!
Msgr. David LeSieur: Just like anybody, God is a person to get to know. You have to eventually get out of your box to meet this person, where you spend time talking and listening. And that is how a relationship grows.
Patti Brunner: The search for Advent holiness can be like courtship and honeymoon. Our Church recognizes that before a couple can spend a lifetime together they need to spend time getting to know all about each other and so the Church generally requires 4-6 months Marriage Prep prior to your wedding date. During those months of preparation, you are at your best. You set aside exclusive time for your fiancé: quiet time to talk, entertaining time to enjoy sharing each other’s company. Your preparation is to make the marriage the best possible. Advent holiness is the same thing: getting to know God, preparing for our encounter with Him, spending exclusive time with Him and desiring to please Him and to do for Him. And then, enjoy the honeymoon! It is so special! So full of love and joy! Everything, but love for him, melts away.
Msgr. David LeSieur: Little Rock Scripture study came to our diocese about 30 years ago. I have seen that change people, so has small church communities. I am hoping that Renew’s “Why Catholic” will have the same effect. There are all kinds of things: Cursillo has changed a lot of people, Marriage Encounter, Beginning Experience, all those movements have helped bring people’s faith along.
Patti Brunner: It changed me! Rick and I can trace our spiritual walk, and it goes right back to Scripture studies in the 70s. That is where my husband’s faith really came alive. We did Renew in the 80’s, and then we hit a dry spell. We went to a Marriage Encounter week-end and it changed our lives, and because we wanted to be together as a couple doing something that was spiritual, we joined a small church community. From there we went to Cursillo in 1996, where the Holy Spirit revealed to us a fullness of God’s love. Since then it just keeps growing! I have a desire to get to those people that have not had the courage or the encouragement or whatever to make that next step or the first step. In the Gospel of the 3rd Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist promised the people that Christ would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. And the promise is fulfilled! I am filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit! My spiritual experience took place at the end of a Cursillo retreat, my “honeymoon with the Lord”. It was like going to sleep in a black and white world and waking up in Technicolor! Since then, I have been around a lot of people who have had a “honeymoon” experience with God, some at retreats and Cursillo, some at low points in their lives. They each had a moment where they felt–they experienced–the reality of God’s love for them. Some call it a “conversion experience”. Christ does call us to ongoing conversion. [ccc[vii]] Some call it “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”. Some call it the “divine hug”. Christian holiness takes the honeymoon into daily life. Christian holiness brings God into every aspect of your life.
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Msgr. David LeSieur: Marriage Encounter is like that desert experience of being alone together. The couple literally has time alone together. It is designed that way so that they can discuss and answer questions together. That is a model for Advent spiritual exercises: Good communication. Spiritual exercises are basically prayer.
Patti Brunner: Right, any great relationship has to have communication and prayer is communication with God. “According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays.”[viii] [CCC] If we seek God with our heart– it is prayer. One simple cry from our heart to God can be more meaningful than repeating hundreds of memorized prayers that are just going through the “motions of prayer” because “If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.”[ix] [CCC]
Msgr. David LeSieur: An important way to restore holiness for the baptized Christian is through repentance and reconciliation. Catholics have the wonderful Sacrament of Reconciliation that allows us to say we’re sorry after admitting our offensive behavior then have God’s representative, the priest, tell us that we are forgiven. It is so simple. Without repentance and forgiveness, a stumbling block of sin will get in the way of our relationship with God.
Patti Brunner: Some of you may be thinking that this is too hard. That admitting your mistakes to a priest overwhelms you or that the sin of your life is so large it can never be removed. Well, remember this: God always makes the first move. He draws us to himself. He gives us the grace to repent and to reconcile. As we hear in our Advent scripture, John the Baptist led the way for our “honeymoon” with Christ, in his cry, “Repent!” Prayer is more than just “being” at Mass. I heard some one say that sitting in mass won’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage will make you a car. We need to do more than just sit there! Mass is where we worship him, we tell him we’re sorry for offending him, we tell him that we trust him, that we love him, and praise him. Here is a spiritual exercise for you: the next time you go to mass, treat it like a second honeymoon or an “interactive date” with the Lord. Do some prep work, pre-read the readings. Dress up a little bit. Look forward with anticipation, and if need be, get a sitter for the kids! Arrive early and get a good seat to be close to Jesus. Listen intently to every word of the mass, especially to the word of God in the readings and when it is time to respond in words or song, mean each word that comes out of your mouth. And when you take Communion, know that you have consummated your love. You and Jesus are one.
Msgr. David LeSieur: God is still a person, although he lives outside of time. You and I have to meet God in time, in a place; a chapel or prayer chair or whatever. And although he is always there, we have to get out of our box and take time to do this…. to go to Mass, to spend time in prayer. But all takes time and place, I think, as with anybody. We have to spend time with him. We have to make the time to know and love someone. I think it’s simple.
Patti Brunner: God is waiting in your heart, right now, to speak with you and to love you abundantly. You’re thinking, who me? “Who am I that the Lord should come to me?” We all can say, “Lord, I am not worthy!” And we have been touched by sin. We are imperfect. But that’s not the point. The point is: Jesus is perfect. His righteousness is perfect, and the magnitude of his righteousness conforms[x] us and detaches[xi] us from sin. As we join together with Christ, his holiness becomes our holiness. The good news is that Jesus is so good that as we accept him, his righteousness, his grace, transforms us.
Msgr. David LeSieur: The word righteousness,[xii] what does it mean? It means He’s all good and all holy. We fall quite short of that. Paul says we are justified by faith so we are brought into right relationship with God. We have become righteous when we believe and accept and are baptized. It’s just a heavy word to me “righteous”.
Patti Brunner: It helps me to think of it this way: We have a small flashlight. We stumble as we try to move around in the dark. But Jesus turns on a bright floodlight, or better yet, joining up with Jesus is like stepping into the bright sunlight. [xiii] When Jesus is within us, we have the brightness of the Son; the son of God! His holiness becomes our holiness. His righteousness redeems us and darkness disappears.
Msgr. David LeSieur: When we are baptized we are holy. We are imperfect-we sin but if we could just let God take the burden of our sinfulness from us, and trust him to know that he’s forgiving us, that he loves us, and that we don’t have anything to fear. Then we can receive that next thing, that baptism of his Holy Spirit and fire that goes with it. So that we can forget ourselves and just be that vessel for God, that empty vessel that he can fill with his Spirit and then we are not full of ourselves anymore, we are full of God, and then we can be “self-forgetful”, and ego is in its proper place, which is always a struggle.
Patti Brunner: Isn’t it interesting that the Advent readings discuss the last coming of Christ and the 1st coming of Christ in the same Liturgical season!
Perhaps this is because the message is the same no matter when Christ is coming into your life. During this season of holiness, this season of Advent, we are called to listen to John the Baptist, reminding us to repent and “prepare the way of the Lord”, and from Paul who reminds us to be blameless in holiness. Christ is coming. And today he wants to enter your heart. Will you let him? Are you ready? Monsieur LeSieur, will you give our listeners your Blessing?
Msgr. David LeSieur: +++ [blessing]
Patti Brunner: Thank you. Monsignor and I invite our listeners to learn more and check the Links available at Patriarchministries.com
Liturgical Readings for Advent Year C Season of Holiness
1st Sunday Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16 “a just shoot”
1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 “be blameless in holiness”
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 “will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud”
2nd Sunday Advent
Baruch 5:1-9 “put on the splendor of glory from God forever”
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 knowledge which makes love overflow
Luke 3:1-6 “John…baptism of repentance…A voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord”
Immaculate Conception
Genesis 3:9-15, 20 Adam & Eve “I was afraid” “Who told you that you were naked?”
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 “every spiritual blessing…be made holy”
Luke 1:26-38 “Hail full of grace” “you will conceive” “may it be done to me”
3rd Sunday Advent
Zephaniah 3:14-18a “the Lord is in your midst, a mighty savior” rejoice
Philippians 4:4-7 “rejoice. in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving”
Luke 3:10-18 “two cloaks should share” “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”
4th Sunday Advent
Micah 5:1-4a from Bethlehem shall come…he shall be peace
Hebrews 10:5-10 not holocausts and sin offerings but obedience of “will”
[i] Galatians 2:21 NIV “21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification * were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.” NAB “21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification
comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.”
[ii] CCC 399
[iii] CCC1472
[iv] CCC 1468
[v] Exodus 20:2-5, cf Deut 5:6-9]
[vi] Hosea 2:16 * So I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.
[vii] Ongoing conversion. Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1428 Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, “clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal.”18 This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a “contrite heart,” drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first.19[viii] Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2562 According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays
[ix] Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2562 If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain
[x] Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1992 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life:40
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.41
[xi] Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1990 Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and it heals.
[xii] Righteousness: Romans 9:30-10:18. CCC: 1987,1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1987 The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” and through Baptism:34 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.35
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1989 The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”38 Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. “Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.”39
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1990 Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and it heals.
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1991 Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or “justice”) here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1992 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life:40 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.41
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1995 The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the “inner man,”44 justification entails the sanctification of his whole being: Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. . . . But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.45
[xiii] John 11: 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if any one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” NAB
