Fourth Sunday of Advent

In spite of the covid-19, this is indeed a festive time of year. Children are excited about Santa Claus; houses, parks and boats flash with lights; and amazon is loaded with on-line shoppers. In the midst of all these festivities, we can easily forget the true meaning of Christmas.

 Holiday symbols—trees, candles, lights, trumpeting angels, Christmas creches—can invite us to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and bow down, like the shepherds or wise men, to worship the Christ child, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

It’s also a time for family, a time for worship, a time for friendship and celebration. Above all, it’s a time for gratitude—gratitude to God for our many blessings.

In the Gospel according to Luke we have the so-called annunciation scene. Somehow or other, the power of God broke into the life of the virgin Mary and asked her to bear within herself a special child. He will be called great, holy, Son of the Most High. While perplexed about how the power of the Spirit would do all this, Mary was so attuned to the presence of God, and such a woman of extraordinary faith, she simply responded: May it be done to me as you say.

These words are easy to say when everything is going our way; but not so easy when we are troubled by something. Perhaps something we wanted but now won’t have: a job promotion. Or a broken relationship, an unexpected and chronic illness. Such turns in life can test our trust in God.

But Mary’s “Yes” gave us Christmas: the world’s greatest love story. That story, as it has come down to us, tells of a baby in a trough. It tells of a mother caressing her child as her husband Joseph watches. It tells of angels singing; shepherds running over the hillside to tell the child how much they loved him. And a star guiding magi through the wilderness to worship this child.

 Centuries ago, St. John summed up this greatest love story in a single line: “the Word became flesh.” Yes, John wrote for us: In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Thru him all things came to be. He was the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Yes, Jesus is our light who illuminates the meaning of life. Christmas means not simply God in Bethlehem centuries ago, but God within us now.

We bear Emmanuel, God within us, initially by virtue of the waters of baptism. Wherever we gather together in his name before the Word of God and around the Table of the Lord, the altar, as we do today, God is there. St. Paul summed it up magnificently: we are by grace what Jesus Christ is by nature: sons and daughters of God. That is God’s gift to us. 

And so during this Christmas season, may we bring to the Christ-child our greatest gift: ourselves, and our commitment to a life of deeper discipleship with Jesus.