CELEBRATE SUNDAY
WITH ST. MARY'S
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
We worship a real person.
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Christianity is a religion that does not worship a thought, a concept, or an idea. We do not worship something esoteric nor do we spend our days praying out into the aether expecting a response from the void. We worship a man, a real human being who lived at a real point in time, who felt like us, mourned like us, laughed like us, and loved like us. We are not a philosophy nor a movement, but a community united in one blood like a family, though that blood belongs to this single individual whom we worship. Most importantly, though, this individual still remains with us, which means that if we are meant to be good Christians, we ought not approach our God as a thought, concept, or idea, as something esoteric or existing in the void. We ought to approach him as we do anyone else in our lives - as another person.
READ THIS SUNDAY'S MESSAGE
Christ’s humanity has consistently been at the center of multiple Christian heresies: either we focus too much on his humanity and overlook his divinity, or we focus too much on his divinity and overlook his humanity. In reality, his humanity aids us in worshiping him as the God of the Universe because it makes him wholly accessible to us. When we want love, companionship, company, a shoulder to cry on, or just a simple community, we are capable of going to Christ and he will fill those roles for us. This might sound impossible to someone who does not know Christ, but our relationship with Christ is just as real as with anyone else we know. First and foremost, our relationships with people are physical; to speak to someone in person is far preferable than texting them, emailing them, or even calling them. We need face-to-face time with our peers. In adoration and the Mass, when the body of Christ is revealed to us, we are given that pure and genuine face-to-face time with something real and physical, and we even have the opportunity to do so on a daily basis. But merely being in one’s presence sometimes isn’t enough for our emotional needs. We need a real conversation, a back-and-forth that allows us to spill the contents of our hearts and to listen to what the other has to say in response to us. Fortunately for us, John tells us that Christ is the Word of God; all of Scripture is Christ’s Divine Word and within those words, we will find exactly what we need to hear. Even more amazing is the fact that we have the actual words of the historical Jesus available to us, words filled with wisdom that continue to touch our hearts in the modern age.
To be in proximity and to be in conversation is all we need from our companions to have a healthy social life. And we do not do this with a fictional character or an amalgamation of myths; Christ is real, just as the historical Jesus was real. This is why Luke finds it necessary in this Sunday’s Gospel to explain exactly when Christ began his ministry of companionship for his sinful people - in the historical reigns of Augustus, Herod, Philip, and Lysanias, under the historical authority of Pontius Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas. He was historically real, occupying space in this world. And to make his real personhood even more accessible to us, he goes beyond mere proximity (found in adoration) and conversation (found in Scripture). He embraces us when we embrace him - in the Eucharist, we become one with that human person. He is not an idea or a concept. Instead, we encounter someone with all five of our senses, the only metrics we have of determining if something is real or not. Luke mentions the historical component in the context of John the Baptist preparing the “way of the Lord,” that “all flesh shall see” God. Our flesh, real and physical, sees and recognizes the real and physical flesh of our God.