Each Sunday when we come
together to celebrate the holy mass we pray the Creed. And one of the things we
always say as part of that prayer is: ‘He (Jesus) will come again to judge the
living and the dead.’ That is what we believe. God came and walked among us in
the person of Jesus and Jesus will come again to judge all people. No one knows
when this will happen, but Jesus has told us that this will happen. Maybe it
will be during our life-time, or maybe not.
Today we officially begin
our preparation for Christmas; our spiritual preparation. We are preparing for
two things: we are remembering the first coming of Jesus at Christmas, and we
are remembering that Jesus will come again at the end of time.
When there is so much emphasis
on buying gifts it is easy for us to lose focus on what this feast is about. In
all the advertising that we hear there is almost no mention of the birth of
Christ; the coming of the Son of God to set his people free from eternal death;
to win the most wonderful thing imaginable for all of us: a life of eternal
happiness when we die. This is what everyone wants, even if we have very
different ideas as to what happiness might be, but we all want happiness for
ourselves and those we love. This is what God has made possible through the death
and resurrection of Jesus. The feast of Christmas is about the beginning of
this event.
In the Gospel reading today,
Jesus is telling us that while we get on with the ordinary things of everyday
life—eating, drinking, marrying, working—we must not forget the bigger things. It
is a warning to us never to become so immersed in time and the things of the world,
that we forget eternity. Even though the worldly affairs are important, we must
not let them distract us from the reality of God; the reality that we will die,
that life and death are in his hands, and that whenever He does come for us, He
must find us ready.
In one sense, we can never
be ready enough for God. How do you prepare to meet God? And yet this is what
God has created us for and we believe it will be wonderful beyond our wildest
dreams, if we have made any effort to be ready.
Jesus says that when the Son
of Man comes, of two people doing the same thing, one will be taken the other
left. What does this mean? It means that although both people were doing the
same ordinary things that we all have to do, one of them had not forgotten
about God, but the other had; the one who had forgotten got left behind.
If we get totally immersed
in the world, or in our families, or in our work, then we have missed what it
is about, because there is much more to our life than this.
As you well know, sometimes
it is when someone becomes seriously ill, or dies, that we suddenly start
realizing how much we have become immersed in the world. We have to get on with
the day to day things of working and living, but we are being told to make sure
that we also make time for God.
I think a good recipe for a
‘happy’ Christmas, is to keep it simple and spend some time coming up to
Christmas remembering what it is about. Even go to mass once a week, or spend a
few minutes in a church every few days. That way we will remember what we are
celebrating.
The Angel said to the shepherds: do not be afraid.
I bring you news of great joy.
Today in the town of David
a Saviour has been born for you;
He is Christ the Lord.
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