Fourth Sunday of Advent
When
I was young (maybe younger is the better word here), I know that I did not
understand how blessed I was. I
grew up in a middle class home with a loving family. We never wanted for anything that we needed. And yet, as I saw my friends in middle
school and high school, all I could focus on was what I didn’t have, which made
me blind to what I did have. We
never had video games. The best we
got was Oregon Trail (the old one, mind you) and Sim City. My dad didn’t like to buy fruit snacks,
both because they were not very healthy (that was probably more of my mom’s
influence), and because they were expensive (that was certainly my dad’s
doing). We never went on a Spring
Break trip to tropical locales like many of my friends did. In fact, my first Spring Break trip was
from St. Paul to Chicago as a freshman in college (not quite the exotic
vacation you dream of in cold weather).
But, as I grew older, I have come to realize how blessed I truly was.
As
Catholics we can sometimes forget how blessed we with our faith. When we grow up in a Catholic culture
in our homes, it can be easy to take for granted the great gift we have in the
opportunities to grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus. It can be easy to forget that for two
millennia or so, God’s chosen People were waiting for someone to undo the
ancient curse that our first parents, Adam and Eve, brought upon the entire
human race through original sin.
God
had promised to send a redeemer, but there was a lot of waiting involved. Right after the Fall, God promised one
who would strike at the head of the serpent. Moses promised a great prophet, to whom the Jews must
listen. Our first reading, which
is quoted by St. Matthew in our Gospel passage, gives us one of the Messianic
promises of Isaiah, that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall
name him Emmanuel,” which means God-with-us. St. Paul reminds the Romans and us in the second reading,
that the Good News that God has saved His people from their sins was “promised
previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.” Even our preface, the prayer I chant
before the Holy, Holy, Holy reminds us of this fact, as it says, “For all the
oracles of the prophets foretold him.”
And at
the time of Jesus, there was great longing for the Messiah: partly because the
Jews wanted to be freed from their Roman oppressors, but also because it had
been hundreds of years since the last prophet. Can you imagine the anticipation of the Blessed Mother,
knowing that the unseen child in her womb was truly the Son of God? Every mother is excited to see her baby
for the first time at its birth, but Mary’s excitement must have been even
greater since this baby was not just her baby, but was also God-with-us. Or think of John the Baptist. In the womb he leapt for joy in the
presence of Jesus at the Visitation of the Blessed Mother to her cousin
Elizabeth. But imagine his
waiting, too, at the Jordan River, knowing that his whole mission was to point
out the Messiah. Our preface takes
up their excitement, too, as it says, “the Virgin Mother longed for him with
love beyond all telling, John the Baptist sang of his coming and proclaimed him
when he came.” Jesus Himself will
say to his disciples: “Blessed are your eyes for what they see. For many kings and prophets longed to
see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear
it.” And again He says, “Abraham
longed to see my day.”
And we
get to see and receive that Jesus.
We have been blessed in receiving that gift of faith in Jesus, knowing
that He is the long-awaited Messiah!
We don’t have to wonder if God will ever make good on the promises He
made from Adam and Eve, to Moses, and to the prophets. We know that God has fulfilled His word
in the Word-made-flesh, Jesus. Do
we realize how blessed we are? Do
we think about this in these last three days before Christmas? Or are our hearts focused on what we
don’t have: on the gifts we hope to get, the material things that we cannot
afford? Yes, we have been waiting
for almost two millennia for Jesus to return as He promised, but we don’t have
to wonder if there ever will be a Messiah or not. God has given us the Messiah, and since those first
apostles, we have passed on that the God who created heaven and earth and all
that is in them deigned, lowered Himself, to be seen, heard, and touched. As the preface will say again, “already
we rejoice at the mystery of the Nativity.” We wait to celebrate what has already happened and so we can
be joyful.
We can
also be joyful because the same Jesus comes to us in this Mass, as He does at
every Mass, in His Word spoken to us through the Scriptures; and in the
Eucharist, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the same Jesus who was
conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Mother, and who first
showed us the Face of God as He was born in Bethlehem. How blest are our eyes that see God and
our ears that hear His Word! In
these last days of Advent, don’t get caught up in the rush to finish all the
preparations, but take time in prayer to thank God for the many blessings that
we have in our faith, especially for the gift of Jesus, the prophesied and
long-awaited Messiah who makes Himself present for us each day, and especially
each time we get to come to Mass.
