They will call him Emmanuel, ‘God-is-with-us'
Fourth Sunday of Advent
God, being God, is beyond anything we can imagine. God is, well, God, and there's nothing more to be said, except to be in awe. But the awesome thing is that God has come among us. God becomes a human being in the person of Jesus Christ: Jesus is the human face of God. All our futile attempts to reach God get us nowhere, unless God chooses to reach down to us - and God has. In the words of David Jenkins, the former Bishop of Durham, ‘We may not feel up to reaching God; the point is that he has come down to us'. This great truth is contained in the name used in today's Gospel, Emmanuel, God-is-with-us.
The problem, however, is that we seem to want to keep God as far away from us as possible. We think that God has to be kept in special places like in churches or in a sunset or as we look out to sea. And even in church, we put God in a special place called a tabernacle. There's nothing wrong with that, except as a result we forget that God-is-with-us: in the circumstances of our lives, in the smile of a friend, in the thousand and one good deeds that are being done every day. The whole of Advent has been a gradual bringing to awareness of the truth of God's presence in our midst, God's surprising presence as a little child born in an obscure part of the world.
As we enter into the final week of Advent, let us focus on the nearness of God. Let us reflect on the many gifts that God gives us each day as a pledge of his closeness: the gift of life itself, our families and friends, religious faith (even if it's a bit shaky), health, whatever. Let us reflect, too, on the figure of Joseph, asleep and dreaming, when the biggest thing that has ever happened is about to take place. Let us thank God for the gift of sleep. Christmas is a time for dreaming.
A meditation written Fr Paul Graham O.S.A., Assistant General on the Augustinian Council for Northern Europe, including the Provinces of Ireland, England & Scotland, Poland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia
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Thank you! 63 people prayed
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Col 4:6