Friday, December 20, 2024

4th Sunday of Advent

Here we are, it is the Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas begins tomorrow evening.  Since December 2 we have been on a spiritual journey towards the fulfilment of God’s reign.  Our companions on this journey were Jeremiah, Baruch, Zephaniah, John the Baptist and St Paul the Apostle.  But don’t think for a minute that the journey ends on Christmas Day.  This journey began thousands of years ago and will continue until the end of time.  Many travelers smoothed the road for us and we are smoothing the road for those who follow us.   Jeremiah reminded the people of Israel, Judah and us that God’s promises will be fulfilled.  Baruch reveled joyfully because the people of Jerusalem were “remembered by God.”  God does not forget or abandon His people.  Zephaniah reminded the people of his time and us that “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your (and our) midst.”  He is a “mighty savior” and we have nothing to fear.  Today the Prophet Micah tells the people of Israel and us that out of obscure Bethlehem a ruler will emerge “whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.”  This ruler will “stand firm and shepherd his flock.”  His “greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.”

John the Baptist had already encountered the Messiah.  His job was to proclaim that “all flesh shall see that salvation of God.”  “All flesh” includes us, our families, our neighborhoods, our towns our country and our world for generation after generation.  By the time St Paul arrived on the scene, Jesus had already gone to heaven.  But St Paul knew He was coming back and so his work focused on preparing us for the second coming.  In his Epistles St Paul teaches us how to get ready.

In today’s Gospel, Luke 1:39-45, we hear about a very significant part of the journey toward the fulfilment of God’s reign.  Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin, Elizabeth, pregnant with St. John the Baptist.  The joyful greeting of these two unpretentious and humble women marks the beginning of a new age.  All the prophesies of the Old Testament are about to be fulfilled.  Something monumental is about to happen.  God in His goodness, His mercy and His love for us sends us his son, "Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).  

The birth of Jesus transformed the world.  The people of Israel waited thousands of years for this event.  The long-awaited Messiah was not announced with great fanfare or royal proclamations but in a simple exchange of greetings between two ordinary, faithful women “And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”

As we enter into our Christmas celebrations remember that the real meaning of Christmas, of Emmanuel, God with us, is that God loves us so much that He became one of us.  God did this so that we can understand that holiness does not reside in a faraway heaven we cannot see but here, now, in Peachtree City, Georgia.  My prayer for each of you this Christmas is that like Elizabeth, you will recognize the presence of the Lord in your everyday lives.  “Blessed are you who believe that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” 

May your Christmas journey be full of joy and peace!

Our God and Father,
we are eagerly awaiting
the deeper coming of your Son among us.
Prepare us to recognize and receive him
when he comes in his own astonishing way.
We expected him to come with great power
and he comes in poverty and humility;
we looked for him in far places
and he stands by our side;
we waited for extraordinary signs
and we discover him in the simplicity
of everyday life and everyday people.
Accustom us to your Son and his ways
that he may change our lives to conform to his,
for he is our Lord and Savior forever.
Amen.