The Second Sunday of Advent (B)
Dear brothers and sisters,
As we speak to others as members baptized into the one Body of Christ, you and I each have a duty to make the words of the prophet Isaiah our own: “Here is your God! … Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care” (Isaiah 40:9-11). We must help others to know the Lord God is coming to them and, indeed, that he, the one who loves them more than they can understand, is already very near. This is a task, a responsibility, a duty to announce the Lord Jesus and to help others encounter him in a real way.
With deep regret, it must be acknowledged we have failed in this task to convincingly help others recognize the presence – and the importance – of the Lord Jesus, whose way we have not always well-prepared (cf. Mark 1:3; Isaiah 40:3). We have failed in many ways to express adequately the basic premise of Christianity.
To consider what I mean by this, let me pose to you this question I put on the final exam I gave last week:
Christianity is primarily about
a) keeping an ethical and moral code for living
b) an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth, risen from the dead
c) keeping the covenant
d) not offending anyone
If you were to ask this question of the average person on the street, and perhaps even of the average person in our pews, they would not likely be able to give the correct answer.
No one will seriously think Christianity is primarily about not offending anyone. Some, however, may be torn between thinking Christianity is first of all about keeping an ethical code or the covenant, both of which are essentially the same. Fewer yet will give the correct answer, that Christianity is first and foremost about an encounter with Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, and who is coming “like a thief” (II Peter 3:10). Regrettably, this is not the impression we often give to the world; instead, we too frequently present Christianity as an ethical way of life. The world rejects Christian morality because it has not encountered Christ Jesus; it has not accepted his love because it has not met him.
Brothers and sisters, “being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”[1] Christianity is the encounter with Jesus Christ, the experience of his merciful love, that leads to the living out of a moral life. The encounter comes first; the morality comes second. We must willingly speak of the ways we have encountered Jesus if we ever hope to have others join us, if we are ever to say them, “hear what God proclaims” (Psalm 85:9).
Now, before you get squeamish and say you have not encountered Christ, remember what the Church teaches about his presence:
Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, "the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross," but especially under the Eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes. He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).[2]
Our very baptisms were an encounter with Christ, even if we do not remember them; every liturgical celebration is an encounter with Jesus, whether we recognize him in them or not.
While we encounter Jesus in every liturgy, we also encounter him in daily life, sometimes in everyday moments and sometimes during times of great tragedy. I was almost eight years old when my father died and I still remember crying out to God asking why he took my dad away from me. I never received a direct answer to that question – such seems to be the Lord’s way – but I know I heard him say, or felt him say, “I will not you leave you orphaned” (cf. John 14:18). These many years later I can say with confidence the Lord has not abandoned me; he has been near to me in the midst of the sorrows of life as in its joys.
Looking back, I can see that early experience of Jesus was what J.R.R. Tolkien would call euchatastrophic – a good catastrophe – in as much as it was
a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.[3]
I knew in that moment I had encountered the Lord, that he had taken me up in his arms.
Not all of us will have such a story, but we can all surely recall a moment of grace when we were very much away of the nearness of the Lord. Perhaps it was a moment of deep communion with him in the Eucharist. Perhaps something said in a homily pierced our heart. Maybe a scripture passage was just what we needed. Maybe we were suddenly convicted of a pattern of sin. Perhaps somehow we unexpectedly said something comforting and encouraging to a friend. Each of these are encounters with Jesus, in one way or another.
The certainty of Jesus’ abiding presence and love should stir us to strive to live a life worthy of his love; this is what we call the moral life. The moral life is important and necessary to living a Christian life because it is a loving response to love (cf. II Peter 3:14) This must be the way we present Christianity to others. The encounter comes first; the moral life comes as a response to the encounter.
As we continue our preparations to meet the Lord Jesus in the manger of Bethlehem at Christmas, let us not forget the ways we already encounter him in life. With Mary, let us continually ponder these moments in our hearts and use them to help others recognize Jesus in their own lives so they, too, may be baptized into his Body and share in his salvation (cf. Luke 2:19). Amen.
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