Homily – IV Sun of Advent(B) ’11 Father Joseph
If God were to invite you to ask Him for one gift – which you could carry along with you on the journey of life through all the problems, challenges, joys, sorrows and difficulties you would most likely encounter – what would it be…for what might you ask? This is somewhat of a rhetorical question, of course but…one that has been asked and fulfilled in our salvation history.
Well, there is one thing God promised to each man and woman He called into His service. He never asked them to do anything for Him without making this promise. It was to be their greatest source of strength, encouragement and confidence and…if would never fail them! It was a simple promise, a simple gift and an unimaginably great one.
To Isaac God said: Be sure that I am with you; I will keep you safe wherever you go, and bring you back to this land, for I will not desert you...
To Jacob God said: Go back to the land of your forefathers and to your kindred; and I will be with you.
To Joshua God said: As long as you live, no one shall be able to stand in your way; I will be with you as I was with Moses; I will not leave you or desert you.
To Gideon God said: I will be with you and you shall crush Midian as though it were a single man.
To Solomon God said: …I will be with you and will build you as enduring a House as the one I built for David. I will give Israel to you.
When Moses complained to God that he was not the right man for the task of freeing the Hebrews from Egypt, God said: I will be with you.
When the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea and began their long trek through the desert wilderness, God made it abundantly and repeatedly clear to His People that He was with them. He fed them with manna from heaven and brought forth water from the rock. He let it be known: I am with you.
The Hebrews carried a tent with them in the desert wilderness, the “Tent of the Presence.” It contained the Ark of the Covenant. This signified that everywhere His people journeyed; God was with them.
When the Hebrews entered the Promised Land and to fight savage tribes for possession of their covenant-inheritance, God said to them: I will be with you.
To Samuel, David, Jeremiah, Jonah, Daniel and so many other men and women, God said: Do not be afraid, I will be with you.
Through His Holy Prophets, God spoke: The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and they will call Him Emmanuel, a name which means: God-is-with-us.
To Mary the Angel said: The Lord is with you.
Surely, friends, this is the beauty of our celebration of Christmas that, in the coming of the Infant Jesus to Bethlehem two-thousand years ago, God came among us, as one of us, to be with us.
What did Jesus tell his disciples on the hillside, after His resurrection, when He sent them out to preach the Gospel to all nations: I am with you always…until the end of the age.
What does Jesus tell us…gathered in prayer…waiting for the fulfillment of the Kingdom? He speaks to us through the sacramental sign of the Eucharist…I am with you.
Let us make room for Him in our hearts…in our souls…to be filled with the grace and promise that He brought so long ago at Bethlehem…the same promise and grace He brings today…His enduring love: I am with you. And…until He brings the age to a close and calls us to be with Him in glory, we cry out:
Maranatha! Come, O Christ the Lord!
