I also included a reference to the icon currently placed in front of the ambo: Our Lady of the Sign. From my [humble and quickly done] research, it's to be a reflection of Isaiah's prophecy that "the virgin will conceive and bear a son", it seemed rather fitting that I would mention it this week in the homily, since it is mentioned in the First Reading and Gospel. I'm not too sure if people truly ever noticed the icon (this one, or any of the ones we've been placing there recently), but it doesn't hurt to draw the people's attention to it.
For your assistance, this is the image of the icon:
Homily for
the Fourth Sunday of Advent
22 December 2013
22 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”.
One
of these signs we have in our church is the icon of Our Lady of the Sign, which
rests in front of me, here, at the ambo. This depiction of Our Lady pregnant
with Our Lord is a reflection of the prophecy we heard in our First Reading and
Gospel today, where we are presented with the sign announcing the coming of the
Messiah. Isaiah proclaims 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.
This icon depicts
for us something that we seek to validate in our lives every day: 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
brothers and sisters, 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 our midst: 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
are about to receive 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, through 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 few short days, 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 come before the ineffable presence of God this day, we must remember
that Jesus Christ 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 worship 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. This, my brothers and sisters,
is why this icon of Our Lady of the Sign has been with us our entire Advent
journey: to remind us that the Sign has been given to us by the Father in the
Incarnation of His Son, and because of that, we now have the responsibility to
alter our reality so that our lives conform to that of Christ’s.
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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