Advent III 2009

It might be said that there are two spiritual dispositions which the soul must require in order to make ready for the coming of Christ at Christmastime. First of course there is that disposition of humility. Humility is a sense of one’s own self-unworthiness, the sense of being a servant to something greater, the receiver of something that man cannot produce or generate on his own. A humble person does not hold himself, his past, his present or his future in high esteem. A humble person thinks of himself as meant to wait upon higher principles and to serve those ideals which are greater than himself and yet without which he cannot be made new and better into a transformed creature. A humble person is one who knows that he has need of a wisdom, a power and a love that come from God alone. So, of course, the greatest human example of humility that we find in the Holy Scriptures is that of the Virgin Mary. She sings out a song and she tells us that “God hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.” She knows that she is a servant, and so as handmaiden she says, ‘be it unto me according to thy Word.” She realizes that a mighty thing shall come to pass through her, and so her soul “magnifies the Lord and rejoices in God her Saviour.” Without God Mary knows, in her humility, that she can never hope to embrace the new creation of God’s love, wisdom and power in the life of her son.

The second virtue needed to make ready for the coming of Christ at Christmastime is repentance. “Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Repentance is that turning towards God in order to claim one’s sins, to confess and identify them, to express sorrow for them, and to long for the goodness and newness of life that only God can give. And the greatest carrier of the message of repentance is John the Baptist. Like Mary he was not consumed with himself or the things of the earth. Rather he retreated into the wilderness, into the quiet of the desert, away from earthly distractions to encounter himself and Satan, and to deny Satan by admitting his longing for God. So repentance takes a human being into that quiet, and yes, dangerous, spiritual space where he must face himself in reflection, where he looks into his heart to know that “he has done those things which he ought not to have done,” and “has not done those things which he ought to have done.” This sphere is essential to the welcoming of Christ also, because it clears the soul and body of its pollutions, so that the clear, clean breath of God might breathe new life into the world of men.

So we are called to practice two forms of virtue in this Holy Season. Mary, the humble one, has opened herself up to the perfect possibilities that only God can bring about. John, the repentant, has opened himself up to the fulfillment of Christ’s life in the healing of the world. He is ready to receive this truth and so his followers, having found Christ, will return to John, who is in prison, another kind of desert, “to tell him of those things which they have seen and heard,” that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them. John will learn that Christ has come and has brought great change and transformation. The spiritually blind will begin to see the face of God in the life of Jesus. Those who were spiritually handicapped due to fear, anxiety, despair and sadness will be able to move in a radically new way. Those with demons and spiritual diseases will be cleansed and made white in the blood of the lamb. The ears of those who heard only the noisesome madness of this world will have their ears opened to the music of heaven and God’s symphony. The dead will be raised up from sin and its prisonhouse. And the poor in heart shall receive the Good News of the Gospel which shall make them rich. John will hear all of this before his own execution. His followers will receive it, and so will he, because they have repented of their sins and have opened their souls up to the merciful presence of Christ’s coming. Art thou he that should come? Jesus answers with deeds. He is the Messiah not by saying that he is, but by being it.

Jesus tells us that John is his messenger. He is arrayed in camel’s hair and has eaten locusts and honey. He has faced himself and helped others to do the same through the Baptism of repentance. He paved the way for those who would welcome Christ’s coming into their hearts and their souls.   John has prepared his friends for Christ’s coming. And his message is given to us today also. For we too must prepare a place in our hearts for the coming of the Saviour.

And if you and I put on the humility of Mary and the repentance of John, we shall realize something even more significant about the coming presence of Jesus Christ into our world. When one is humble before the Lord only then can he receive the truth of the mysteries of God. St. Paul tells us that the humble and repentant souls are they who will carry the mysteries of God, the deep truth and powerful love of heaven, as stewards in their hearts. Christians are called to be carriers of God’s healing mercy, his forgiveness and his hope. Christians are called to be faithful to God, with their eyes always looking up and out to see that their salvation is always coming, coming in Christ and drawing nigh. St. Paul also tells us that stewards or carriers of Christ’s life must be judged by God alone and not by men. God is the judge, and against the light of his truth and the brilliance of his wisdom alone shall every human being be judged. So as we are to be judged in relation to God’s law and his way in his last and final coming, we must spent our time here, each man, working out his own salvation with fear and trembling. For this reason, as our time is consumed with receiving God’s corrective love and wisdom now, so we are reminded by St. Paul that we are not to judge others. God’s light will shine upon us all, and the light of this truth will determine the counsels and inner secrets of our hearts. If his light shines upon hearts that are sorrowful, repentant and constantly opening up to God’s correction and transformative power, then they shall be judged as those who tried to welcome his coming. If his light shines on hearts that are full of judgment, criticism and condemnation of others, then he will find that these hearts had little time for receiving his love, forgiveness and mercy, and so never passed it on to others.

“You are not my judge,” St. Paul says to the Corinthians.  Imagine him saying to them, “I don’t care what you think, especially of me,” and it’s not hard to imagine St.Paul saying that.  St. Paul tells them and us that we are incompetent.   That’s right, you and I are incompetent judges.  In that brief Epistle reading he gives reasons why we should not pronounce judgment.  It is before the time. This is not the time to pronounce judgment but to publish the good news.   We must beware, and it is a special danger in our day, of sounding judgmental, for our message to the world is forgiveness and mercy, not judgment and condemnation.  In all the moral confusions and decay of our age and society, the Christian message is not finally one of judgment but of the saving and forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ.   Our Gospel is not of law but of grace.  To drunks and adulterers, to cheats and liars, to thieves and abusers, to blasphemers and murderers, the Gospel is the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name.  This is not the time for judgment and we are not the judges.”

This is the time to receive the coming of God in Christ Jesus. The coming of our forgiveness. The coming of our love. The coming of our salvation which measures all things according to a mercy that we do not deserve.

© W.J. Martin†