4th Sunday of Advent
Just three days from now, we will celebrate the 2,024th anniversary of the coming of the Son of God into human history as a child. Just three days to finish up our preparations. Just three more days of waiting. Are you ready? I don't mean here: are you ready for all the Christmas events you've got on your calendar? I don't mean: have all the gifts been bought, wrapped, and put under the tree? I don't mean: have you purchased your Honey Baked Ham and soaked your Christmas pudding? I mean: are you ready for the coming of Christ into the world? His coming as the Christ Child and as the Just Judge? Set aside for a moment the Christmas-y elements of December's end and consider the end for which you were made by the Father and remade in Christ Jesus. Are you ready? If not, you have today and two more days to get ready. What do you have left to prepare? What's left undone? Perhaps you're missing out on the joy of Christ's birth and return. Maybe – unlike John in his mother's womb – you're anxious, fretful, or just plain blah. Now's the time to remember that joy is an effect of love and godly joy is an effect of divine love!
This Christmas will be my 60th Christmas. Like most grown up kids I love the gift-giving, the feasting, the extra fancy liturgies. But I do miss gathering with my mom's huge Mississippi Delta family. All 50 something of us. And the quiet Christmas Eves with my dad's mom and dad. Just the six of us at home. I've celebrated Christmas in several US states and three foreign countries. My favorite presents over the years: a kid's doctor bag, complete with stethoscope and syringe. An LED digital watch. A check for tuition. A Jerusalem Bible. And my grandfather's annual one-size-fits-all gift of a crisp $100 bill. I miss taking my mom shopping for the family's gifts. She hated shopping, and it was my job to keep her on task. It was also my job to keep the Christmas Eve menu under seven dishes. Left alone, she'd cook enough food for four Christmases! At 60yo, and mom passed away, my job now is to sit back with my dad and watch my four great-nephews – all under 5yo – tear my brother's house apart. And laugh. The pics we take year to year all look the same year to year. Well, we get fatter, grayer, and the boys get taller and louder. Nothing else seems to change. I wouldn't have it any other way.
But that's Christmas. What did I do to prepare? And what do I have left to do? Being a Dominican friar means I've spent the last three weeks praying the Advent Offices and celebrating Advent Masses. All the language is about the arrival of Christ; preparing for Christ; waiting, anticipating, expecting. Scripture points out the ancient prophecies of his identity and his mission and how he will come again. If we've been paying attention, we know just how extraordinary the Incarnation really is. How unique in human history it is for God to take on human flesh and bone. If we've been taking in the Spirit of divine love, we know the joy of his arrival. We know the relief of being freed from sin and death. We know what it is to be remade in the image and likeness of the Christ. To be offered the Father's mercy and adopted into His holy family. We feel the charge of being Christ in the world for the salvation of the world. And we can work and rest and pray knowing that our labor is always made light and smooth in the presence of the one who died for us. If you're not ready, don't worry. Getting ready is a matter of a moment.
Today and two more days. When the family gathers, give God thanks for his holy family and their fidelity to the Word. When the Christmas feast comes out of the kitchen, give God thanks for the feast of the Eucharist and the Wedding Feast in heaven. When the Christmas gifts get handed out, give God thanks for the gifts of the Magi to the Christ Child and his gift to us on the altar. When the children tear into their presents, give God thanks for John's joyful and rambunctious witness to Jesus from his mother's womb. And when everything is eaten and unwrapped, and everyone is stuffed and ready to sleep, give God thanks for sending His Son among us so that we might join Him at the end of the age. If you're not ready, there's time. His birth, life, death, and resurrection serves human history from all eternity. He is always being born, always living, always dying, and always rising. So, it's never to late to jump for joy!
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