Fourth Sunday of Advent
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Fr. Aelred's Homily
Today's second reading
is taken from the beginning of St Paul's letter to the Romans - one of his masterpieces.
Paul is writing to the Christians living in very small communities in the great
city of Rome, a world where paganism reigns supreme in its institutions, its cultural
heritage, and its morality. Against the grandeur of Rome the small Christian community
appears insignificant, even contemptible. But even if a community is reduced to
a handful of faithful to celebrate the holy mysteries, it has a timeless message
to proclaim.
Today's passage from
Romans is most appropriate as we approach Christmas, because it provides us with
a profession of faith of the early church in the form of a hymn to Christ: in his
double sonship it reads: "The Gospel of God that he promised long ago through the
prophets, as scripture record....about his son. A descendant of David according
to the flesh, but son of god in power according to the spirit of holiness, by his
resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord". In a few verses the genius of
Paul brings out the Trinitarian character of the confession of faith that names
the Father (God), the son and the Spirit, and links them to mystery of the
Incarnation.
On the 17th
December, when we are within a week of Christmas, the opening prayer for Mass
reads: Father, you decreed, and your Word became man, born of the Virgin Mary.
May we come to share the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share our
human nature’. This prayer tells us that the Word becomes human so that humans
might become divine. By grace even in this life, we become sharers in the
divine nature. We don’t have to have to wait until after death before this can
take place. An early saint put it like this: ‘The divine word, who once for all
was born in the flesh, always in his compassion desires to be born in the
spirit in those who desire him. He became an infant and molds himself in them through
their practise of the virtues.
St Paul tells us in
one of his letters that the mysteries of our faith are very deep. But we don’t have
to be very clever in order to be good disciples and friend of Jesus. We can
join with Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds in contemplating the infant in the
crib. And if we are sincere in offering him our human love and service we will
receive in return something far more precious: The beginning of a share in his
divine nature.
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