Hebrews 2:2-10
Luke 8:41-56
Some good things are a long time
coming. We know that in our own lives,
relationships, and accomplishments at work, school, or elsewhere. The best things in life are worth waiting for
and require our patience and preparation.
That is true of how salvation has
come to the world through our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. The many generations of the Hebrew people in
the Old Testament prepared His way.
God’s messengers, the angels, instructed them through the Law and other
announcements and actions. His prophets called
the people to faithfulness in anticipation of the Messiah, the One anointed for
the fulfillment of all the promises to Abraham both for his descendants and all
the people of the world who respond with faith to the Lord.
Today we are one week away from the
beginning of our time of preparation for the coming of the Messiah, for the
birth of Jesus Christ. Neither merely an
angel nor a prophet, He is truly God in the flesh. The Nativity Fast, which we
often call “Advent,” begins on November 15, forty days before the great feast
of Christmas. The weeks leading to the
Nativity of the Savior do not have the bright sadness of Lent, as they are a
joyful time of getting ready to celebrate Christ’s birth by receiving Him anew
into our lives as we take our place with angels, shepherds, prophets, and
generations of righteous people from all over the world who have rejoiced that
the Son of God has become one of us, bringing broken and suffering human beings
into the very life of God, Who made us in His image and likeness.
We will fast, pray, confess our
sins, give to the needy, and forgive our enemies during the coming weeks so
that we will have the spiritual strength to celebrate Christmas properly, which
means welcoming the Savior into our lives at His birth. Of course, anyone can make a cultural
observance of Christmas. But something
as profound as the Incarnation, the joining of divinity and humanity in the
Person of Jesus Christ for our salvation, requires more than putting up a tree
or going to a party. It requires that we
unite ourselves personally with the One Who comes to save us, that we prepare
the way of the Lord in our own souls. That is what the Nativity Fast is all about
as a season of joyful anticipation, a time of getting ready to enter more fully
into the salvation of the world.
As we all know, the world in which Christ was born
was not a place of perfection where all was sweetness and light. Some sought to kill Him from His birth, and
St. Joseph had to lead the infant Jesus and the Theotokos to Egypt for their
physical safety. Christ was born as a
vulnerable baby in the same world of suffering and pain that we know all too
well. It is the world experienced by
Jairus in his grief and by the woman with the flow of blood in her chronic
illness. It is the same world filled
with war, terrorism, hatred, strained marriages, broken homes, and every sort
of depravity, decay, and loss. And in a
season when our culture tells us to shop, eat, drink, be merry, and pretend
that all is well, many will experience these pains even more powerfully than
usual. We will soon be in what many
people find to be the most stressful and difficult time of year.
There is, of course, no magic solution to the
problems of the world or our own personal struggles. But the weeks of Advent lead us back to
today’s epistle reading: “As it is, we
do not yet see everything in subjection to Him.
But we see Jesus, Who for a little while was made lower than the angels,
crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the
grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in
bringing many sons to glory, should make the Pioneer of their salvation perfect
through suffering.”
The Savior entered
fully into the corruption and danger of our world, voluntarily suffering so
that our path of struggle would not be in vain, but become a blessed entrance
to eternal life. His unimaginably
profound love is manifested through the humility of His birth, life, and
death—through which He conquered all the corruption and pain of our fallen
humanity in His glorious resurrection.
That is how He brings us into His glory when we endure suffering
faithfully and obediently. That is how
we participate in His glory as we share in His life, which requires dying to
sin, taking up our crosses, and serving Him in our neighbors, especially “the
least of these.”
Who in the Church would not praise this way of
living? Talk, however, remains cheap; truly
to prepare our hearts and souls to receive Him at Christmas requires much more
than pious words and warm feelings. It
requires actions that grow from a courageous mind and a humble heart. The woman with the flow of blood certainly
had the courage to confess openly that she had touched the hem of Christ’s
garment and found healing for her illness, which had made her unclean and
isolated for many years. She fell down
before Him trembling and said out loud what she had done and revealed the deep
pain and embarrassment of her life. The Lord said that her faith had made her
well and then she left in peace. Courage is not the absence of fear, but doing
the right thing in spite of our fears. And
sometimes the greatest courage is shown not by superheroes, but by perfectly
ordinary people who simply reach out to God for mercy and healing as best they
can one day at a time.
We must be courageous in refusing to be
overcome by the fears and doubts that may fill our minds this Advent. Perhaps difficult circumstances of whatever
kind seem more real to us than the new life of Christ. Maybe we despair of ever finding health for
our bodies, healing of broken relations with others, the strength to reorient
our lives toward God, or hope for a world with so many problems. When
done with humility, the spiritual disciplines of the Nativity Fast help us to
remain focused on our Savior, Who entered into more suffering and pain than we
can possibly imagine for our salvation.
Because of Him, even our most difficult struggles may become pathways to
share more fully in His victory over all evil and corruption. He was born to
sanctify every aspect of human existence.
No dimension of our life in the world is a stranger to Him or His
salvation. We must have the courage not
to despair because He is born truly to save and bless us in our much less than
perfect world.
In addition to courage, we also need humility as we begin
to prepare for Christmas. Did you notice
the humility of Jairus in today’s gospel reading? This upstanding leader of the Jewish community
humbled Himself by falling before the Lord and asking for His help in healing
his daughter. And even when all was lost
and others were laughing at Christ, Jairus and his wife had humble faith and
were amazed at the miracle.
The spiritual disciplines of the Nativity Fast are
tools to help us grow in the humility that we need in order to be amazed at the
birth of our Lord in a world that often laughs at those who view Christmas as
anything other than a mere cultural celebration or a season of shopping and
socializing. Fasting from the richest
and most satisfying foods is a way of humbling ourselves before God, gaining
some strength in resisting self-centered desires, and freeing up resources to
share with the needy in whom He is present to us. Confessing our sins is at the heart of humble
repentance, of acknowledging how we have fallen short and receiving the
strength to heal from our self-inflicted wounds. What could be more fundamental to true
humility than taking the time each day to call to Him from the depths of our
souls? That is the discipline of
prayer. And there is surely no greater
opportunity for humility than forgiving our enemies and asking forgiveness of
those whom we have wronged.
For many of us, life will soon get very busy all the
way to New Year’s and Theophany. Now, in this week before Advent begins, is the
time to prepare to cultivate the courage and humility that we need to celebrate
the birth of Jesus Christ by welcoming Him anew into our lives. Now is the time
to get ready to enter more fully into His life, for He is the salvation of the world.
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