BISHOP JAVIER ECHEVARRIA (1932-2016)

BISHOP JAVIER ECHEVARRIA
(1932-2016)

The friends and staff of the St. Josemaria Institute join in the prayers for the repose of the soul of Bishop Javier Echevarria, Prelate of Opus Dei, who passed away on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 2016.
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COME LORD, AND DO NOT DELAY
“We all have engraved on our hearts some words that, in the upcoming weeks, should leave their imprint on everything we do: veni, Domine, et noli tardare; come Lord, and do not delay. We are invited to turn our eyes to Christ, while recalling his terrestrial birth in Bethlehem and awaiting, also with joy and peace, his glorious coming at the end of time. If we were to fail to make this effort, our daily occupations, the monotonous succession of days almost always the same, could perhaps make our daily path seem tedious and uninteresting, and undermine the expectation of an encounter with the Saviour.

“Hence this marvelous cry of the Church: come, Lord Jesus! As Saint Bernard said, between the first and final advent comes an adventus medius, an intermediary coming of Christ, which marks the entire course of our existence. ‘This intermediary coming is, one could say, a path leading from the first to the last: in the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this intermediary one he is our rest and our consolation.’

“In preparing ourselves for the imminent commemoration of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, these weeks spur us to realize how God draws close to us at each moment; he awaits us in the sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist, and equally in prayer, in the works of mercy. ‘Awaken! Remember that God comes! Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now! The one true God, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” is not a God who is there in Heaven, unconcerned about us and our history, but he is the-God-who-comes.’”

Bishop Javier Echevarria
Letter from the Prelate
Rome | December 1, 2016