4th Sunday of Advent – December 19, 2010
(Luke 3: 1-6)
We are now in the last week of Advent, the celebration of the birth of the Messiah is six days away. In the liturgy the Church brings us to the desert and again shows us John the Baptist, preaching the baptism of penance and telling the people of his time, and telling us, to prepare the way of the Lord, and that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Let us prepare the way of the Lord by taking stock of who we are and what we have done with our lives this past year. Have we come closer to God by loving our families and giving of ourselves for the sake of the family? Have we fasted and abstained as we should on the days set aside for that? Have we prayed for our enemies this past year? Have we prayed morning and night and at every meal? Have we prayed together as a family?
We are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1: 26) Let us resolve this Christmas and in the year to follow to act like we are made in His image. Pope St. Leo the Great, who died in the year 461, wrote that the dignity of the divine majesty appear in us when we imitate God’s will. We imitate His will by practicing our religion, and so Pope Leo writes: “There are three things that especially pertain to the practice of religion, namely: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. . . . For by prayer we obtain the divine favor, by fasting we extinguish the concupiscence of the flesh, [and] by almsgiving sins are redeemed.” By all three together the image of God is renewed in us, provided we praise Him and seek His grace by our prayers, and that we are eager for our own purity, and always ready to assist our neighbor through almsgiving.
The time of Christ’s appearance is told by the recording in today’s Gospel of the secular king, Tiberius Caesar, then the Jewish tetrarchs, or princes, Herod, Philip and Lysanias, and by the reigning high priests, Annas and Caiphas. Israel at this time was divided, being under the rule of Caesar and the lesser princes and priests. But John the Baptist proclaimed Him who was both King and Priest, as Melchisedech was in the time of Abraham. It is interesting to note in Scriptures that when a message is directed only to the Jews, the Chosen People, only the Jewish rulers are mentioned, but when the message is directed at the whole world the secular leaders are also mentioned, because Christ came to save all.
Christ gave Himself to us beginning on Christmas Day, and this opened the doors of heaven to a fallen human race. This is the season then for gift giving. Let us give ourselves to God this Christmas as He gave Himself to us. We give ourselves to Him by prayer, fasting and good works or almsgiving.
What do we mean by a “fallen human race”? That refers to Original Sin. The sin of disobedience that Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden comes down to every human being. Adam and Eve were given certain gifts by God: mastery over their passions, life without death, sanctifying grace and other gifts. Think of God as a king who gives a man an hereditary title. It is given on the condition that the man remains loyal to the King, but if he is disloyal the King can strip him of his title and, because the title was hereditary, this also strips the man’s descendants of all the gifts and rights that go along with it. It’s not that the descendants were disloyal, but because of the original sin of the title holder, they suffer the consequences of his sin of disloyalty. This is what happened in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve were disloyal to God, He stripped them and us of those gifts. That is the effect of Original Sin and that’s why we are a fallen race.
It is the most natural thing for us, the created, to imitate our Creator. What others should see in us is the beauty of the Divine Goodness. This was lost to us by the sin of the first Adam in disobedience to our Father in Heaven. In obedience to His Father Jesus Christ restored Divine Goodness to us. This is why Jesus is often called the Second Adam.
A blessed Christmas to all. +++
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