With faith and hope, the path is right, to welcome Christ on Christmas night.
One afternoon, as I entered the playroom of the Sick Children’s Hospital, I heard my name called out by Cathy’s tiny voice. She was lying on the gently warmed floor where she was held prisoner by the paralysis which constrained her fragile muscles. Her clear blue eyes were sparkling with joy. Her mouth stretched out into a gigantic smile. Her whole frail body trembled with delight. She beckoned to me with her finger. She had a secret to tell me. I knelt down beside her and she whispered her secret in my ear in a voice which was alive with little gasps of happiness. The next day would be her birthday. She would be going home with her parents. There would be a party with her brothers and sisters, ice cream and cake, everything. She remembered the wonderful party that she had last year, and now the hope and expectancy of tomorrow’s birthday party filled her lonely little heart with immense happiness. Her vivid memory of the past and anticipated joy of the future were so strong that it was almost as if she were already there, enjoying the festivities.
That precious experience has been ever since, a reminder for me about the deep spirituality of Christian life, liturgy in general, and the Advent/Christmas season. Our Christian life is enlivened by the ongoing remembrance of the wondrous saving events of our salvation manifested by Jesus of Nazareth from his conception to his glorious resurrection. This remembrance fills us with a confident, joyous hope in the bond of love flowing from the glorified Jesus the Christ who embraces us even now when our present life might seem to be burdened with difficulties. This gift of hope assures us that we are on our way to participate in the immeasurably joyous and eternal communion with all creation in God.
The Advent/Christmas season and its liturgies help us to intensify this Christian outlook about the meaning of our journey of life. We fondly look back to the humble birth of Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem. When we think of the fragility and vulnerability of the infant Jesus, we are assured of the tenderness of God’s love for humanity. But Jesus did not remain an infant. The Son of God who became human like us, grew in wisdom and age. As an adult, Jesus manifested the unconditional sacrificial love of a friend when he died on the cross and the liberating love when he rose gloriously from the dead.
Our contemplation, like that of Mary, on the events of the birth of the infant Jesus in the past, should lead us to recall his brotherly love for us and the intimacy of the risen Christ in us right now. The amazing wonder of the Incarnation of the Son of God, and his present incredible indwelling now, lead us to hope in our glorious transformation and the future coming of the glorious Christ, the universal sovereign of glory at the end of time.
Thus, the purpose of the liturgies of the Advent/Christmas season is to strengthen our hope by reminding us that Christ has already come. At the same time, the liturgies project us into the future for a foretaste of what we are to hope for: the final glorious coming of the cosmic Christ when we will be with all creation in the endless life and unlimited joy of love with God. Finally, by reassuring our hope, and bolstering our faith in the presence of Christ in and around us now, the liturgies deepen our relationship with Christ. His love now is the living source of daily peace and joy, as well as courage to work with compassionate justice. The Advent/Christmas season strengthens our hope in the present time by remembering the past and looking to the future.
Advent/Christmas builds up our hope for the ultimate fullness of the energy of joy-filled love with which the cosmic Christ will fill us. This is the same divine love which energizes the relationship with Christ which we already share in Holy Communion. Advent/Christmas invites us to turn more faithfully to the Word of God in Holy Scripture in times of distress and suffering, but also joy.
The gift of this holy liturgical season strengthens our efforts to be like the Word of God made Flesh in Jesus, by the giving of ourselves and the receiving of others in love as the Lord Jesus gives Himself and receives us. The grace of Advent/Christmas animates our ongoing conversion and transformation leading to our final homeland and eternal participation in divine life. Wondrously, we already foretaste this by being joined intimately in communion with the glorious Christ in the gift of the Eucharist. Advent/Christmas proclaims the Lord Jesus as Emmanuel, that is, God with us, in Bethlehem, in the Eucharist, in our daily lives and in the final glorious reign with all creation in the Father and in the Holy Spirit. Christ was born. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again!
Rev. Frank Wagner, C.S.C.
House Superior, Holy Cross Fathers
Leave a Reply