The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

The time for the celebration of the Birth of Jesus is drawing near. In today's Gospel reading (St. Luke 3, 1-6), we see the time recorded for both Gentile Nations and the nation of Israel. For the Gentiles, the time is recorded as the "fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar." For the Israelites, the time is recorded as "Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip being tetrarch of Iturea, and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina; under the high priests Annas and Caiphas." The time was now right for the coming of the Savior. The prophecies gave as a sign of the Savior's coming, the fall from power of the kingdom of Israel. This had taken place with the power of rule over Israel now divided into four ruling powers.

God had come and spoken to St. John the Baptist so that he should start preparing the way for Jesus. The fact that both the secular and the religious authorities were recorded lets us know that the Savior has come for everyone. Jesus would redeem some from Israel and many from the Gentiles. This is why the king of the Gentiles and the princes of Israel are all mentioned.

The way to best prepare to receive the Savior is spiritually tear down mountains of pride and vanity and fill up the valleys of fear or doubt. As Jesus said, the proud will be humbled, and the humble will be exalted. The crooked paths of lies and deceit must be straightened out. The rough ways of violence, anger, and impatience must be smoothed over.

Jesus came for all, but not everyone received Him. The same is true today as we celebrate Jesus' coming to us. Some receive Him, and some refuse Him. Many celebrate Christmas with little thought or consideration for Jesus or their immortal souls. Christmas has become secularized and commercialized as a day for materialists and worldlings.

When our focus is on physical pursuits and pleasures, the idea of fasting and doing penance seems foolish or absurd. The Materialists want to celebrate Christmas without any preparation — especially without labor, mortifications, or penances. St. John is telling us that this is not the way.

We have bodies, but we were not made for our bodies. Our bodies were made for us. In the proper order of God's plan, we are made for God, and the world was made for us. The inanimate earth was created to grow vegetation — fruit and plants. The vegetation was created for the use of animals and humans. The animals were created for the benefit of humans. Humans were created for God. If in the depth of our souls, we work and strive to love and serve God as we ought to, then we will find that our bodies will work and strive to serve our souls. When our souls and bodies are in the correct order with God, the animals, plants, and inanimate things will return to the proper order of serving us.

The spiritual joy of the Christmas celebration is lost too often because we do not prepare to receive it. Pure material pleasure is very short-lived and empty. It is often accompanied and filled with anxiety, disappointment, and frustration. The true joy in celebrating Christmas is only realized when we follow the lead of St. John the Baptist by putting our lives back in order so that Jesus may truly come into our lives.

Souls living the spiritual life in serving God find joy in their bodies and souls. This joy of body and soul can be ours regardless of our riches or poverty, health or illness, youth or old age. The circumstances of this life are indeed matters of indifference to those who love and serve Jesus. Our true happiness is only in receiving and welcoming Jesus into our hearts and souls, which have been prepared to worthily receive Him through eager longing and penitential mortification, fasting, and abstinence.

If we have accomplished little spiritually this Advent, we should increase our efforts this last week and strive to make up for lost time and opportunity. May we recall the evil we have done and humble our souls in continuing repentance. Let us seize by this repentance the inheritance of the just, which till now has been slipping from us because of the manner of our lives. St. Gregory said: "Let us then be earnest in our repentance. Let us wash away with tears and fruits worthy of repentance the evil we have committed. Let not that time be lost that is in mercy given to us, for we who see so many already healed from their sins, what have we here but a pledge of heavenly mercy, in Jesus Christ Our Lord who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen."

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