It is a dark, dark world. Pick up a newspaper and or go online to read the news for a few minutes and it’s pretty easy to get downright depressed.
An
Iraqi clergyman reports that four Christian youths, threatened with their lives
unless they forsake Christ and swear allegiance to Mohammed, refuse. And are beheaded. Protests, even riots, in Ferguson, MO and all
across the country. 3000 people killed
on 9-11 and our nation resorts to torture in response. Thousands dying of Ebola in Africa, out of sight. And I could go on. Darkness all about.
And
we have darkness in our own lives, huh?
Who among us hasn’t experienced the emptiness and gnawing loneliness from
the death of a loved one? Or the
heartbreak or anger perhaps of a broken relationship? The fear of an announced
layoff, the panic of a doctor’s diagnosis.
The despair and powerlessness of being imprisoned in a sinful habit or
addiction. Or the sadness of a grown
child turned away from the Faith?
Darkness in each of our lives.
Against
the darkness of the world and our lives, Holy Mother Church today gives us a
one-word response: Rejoice! Rejoice!
Kind of silly, huh? I mean how is
it that we are called to rejoice when engulfed in the darkness of our world, of
our lives?
The
answer, of course, is also one word: Jesus!
Jesus Christ, Our Lord, the light of our dark world. The light of Whom the Evangelist John speaks
in the Gospel I’ve just proclaimed.
Jesus Christ, who came to us 2000 years ago and is coming again – on
Christmas morn and at the end of time.
Who
by His life, death and resurrection, gave to us the only answer to the
darkness of this world, the only hope for the darkness of our
lives. He came once, and comes again, as
Isaiah prophesied, to heal the brokenhearted, to bring glad tidings to the
poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and free those imprisoned. To proclaim to the world a Gospel of love, a
Gospel of joy! Rejoice then, for Christ
is near!
Now
the devil’s advocate in the congregation might say, “oh, but Deacon Ed, Jesus
came into the world 2000 years ago and the world is still mighty dark. What say you about that?
To
which I’d give two answers:
First,
imagine what the world would look like today if Jesus never came. Kind of like that favorite of Christmas-time
movies, It’s a Wonderful Life. You’ve
probably seen the film many times, but in case you haven’t, it’s the story of
George Bailey, set someplace in upstate New York just before Christmas. George, in a moment of despair one dark night,
decides it would be better never to have been born and jumps off a bridge into
the icy-cold swirling waters below.
Clarence, his guardian angel working to get his wings, comes to save
George, and then shows George exactly what the city of Bedford Falls would have
looked like had George never been born. How
much worse life would be there had there been no George Bailey. The result is a deep conversion in George, he
concludes his life has been important, that he has had a profound effect on all
those around him, and he repents of his decision.
So,
dark as our world is, try to imagine how much darker it would be without Christ
having been born. And the only way to do
that is to imagine what it would look like without committed disciples of
Christ, the Church. An example - Time
Magazine just named the Ebola fighters as 2014 person of the year – these people
from around the world who have risked their health, indeed their lives, in an
effort to stop this epidemic. Why? Many give their faith in Jesus Christ as the
answer.
One
woman, Mother Teresa, by her faith in Jesus Christ, spent her life establishing
missions to the poor and dying in 610 locations on all seven continents.
And
imagine how dark the world would be without Catholic hospitals, schools,
universities, missions and charities.
And
imagine our own community without committed disciples of Christ giving of their
time in food pantries, hospices, and soup kitchens, and giving of their
resources to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Yes, there is darkness in the world, but
there is the light of Christ all around us.
Second,
Christ isn’t done yet. The Kingdom isn’t
finished. He came into the world to
start it all, and He accomplished all that is necessary for the Kingdom by His
life, death and resurrection, but He left it and ascended to His Father. Now, guided by the Holy Spirit and fed by His
very Body and Blood, we, His disciples are tasked with working toward the
Kingdom’s completion. Tasked to carry
His light into the world. Like John, to
testify to the light.
And
you and I do that, I think most of all, by living joyfully. If I invite Jesus Christ to be the light of
my life, the center of my life, I will have nothing to fear, for I will have
hope. And His light, His love will
overflow from me. To be sure, His joy
will overflow from me. Such that the
world will be a very different, better place by my having been here, by His
having been here, working through me. If
Jesus Christ is not already the light of your life, not already your peace and
yes, your joy, pray for Him to come to you anew this Christmas time.
It
is said that on a perfectly dark night, the flickering of a single candle can
be seen lighting the night as much as thirty miles away. My sisters and brothers, let us joyfully
anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ into our lives anew, so that through us,
Christ may bring ever increasing light into our dark world. And let us live in joyful hope for the coming
of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, at the end of the age.
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