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Reflection for the Advent Holy Hour
17 December 2013
17 December 2013
In
my Sacraments course in high school, I was taught that “signs and symbols point
to reality.” And while reality is right in front of our faces, we need to
somehow validate it, to make sure what we’re experiencing in life is, for lack
of a better word, “real”.
In
our First Reading and Gospel for the upcoming Fourth Sunday of Advent, we are
presented with the sign announcing the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah points out
to us that “the virgin will conceive and bear a son.” Matthew illustrates for
us the fulfillment of the prophecy through his description of Joseph’s visit by
the angel in his dream.
Now,
two thousand years later, we still seek a sign to validate the presence of
Christ in our midst. Our reality somehow doesn’t seem complete unless we have
that proof that our Lord is the “Emmanuel”, that God is with us.
My
friends, it seems funny that we go out of our way to seek the signs of the
Lord’s dwelling among us when, in reality, we have the two greatest testimonies
of His presence in front of us this evening: His Word and His Sacrament.
Through His presence in the Word, our Lord continues to speak to us about how
we are to trust that He is always with us, and what we need to be doing throughout
the Advent that is our life journey in preparing to meet Him when He comes
again in His glory.
And,
yet, the powerful sign of the Most Blessed Sacrament is also that reality which
places before us the everlasting presence of Jesus Christ in our midst. This
Sign of our salvation once again points us to the reality that our God
continues to abide amongst His creation. This Eucharistic Presence reminds us
that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Who and What we
see before us in the monstrance is the same Emmanuel, prophesied by Isaiah and
cared for by Mary and Joseph. He is the Sign that fulfilled the Law and the
Prophets of the Old Testament.
Our
Lord, in Word and Sacrament, continues to be that Sign in which we come to
recognize the loving presence of God in our midst. And in a week, we will
celebrate that First Coming among us – where all the prophecies and signs all
lead to a tiny manger in Bethlehem; where the Incarnate Sign of the love of the
Father was made present to the world.
And
while we sit in the ineffable presence of God this evening, we must remember
that He who we adore this evening was born, like you and me, into a world
seeking a sign of the presence, of the reality of God. However, Jesus never
sought the sign because He WAS AND IS the Sign. Now He teaches us not to seek
any sign, for the Sign has already been given.
We
must move from seeking the sign to following the Sign.
We
must now follow the example of the shepherds who followed the glad tidings of
the angels. We must now follow the example of the Magi who followed the star.
We must now follow the example of Mary and Joseph who, after their own unique
experiences with the Divine, followed the plan that God had laid out for them.
We must now follow the example of the Sign, Himself, Jesus Christ, who teaches
us that the wood of the crib must become the wood of the Cross, and both are
necessary for our salvation.
We
no longer seek, for the Sign has been given. We adore for He is here, now,
pointing the way to the Father. He who is the Fulfillment of the Law and the
Prophets makes whole the reality of our lives.
If
“signs and symbols point to reality,” then the Sign sent by the Father through
the Incarnation of Jesus Christ truly points to the reality we ought to have:
Fullness of joy, light and peace in a world where the wood of our cribs becomes
the wood of our crosses, so that, entering into Christ’s Paschal Mystery, we
may experience the fulfillment of reality in the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Enjoy the journey . . .
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