Beloved Family:
Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you. Isaiah 35:4
Isn’t it a blessing to know that we serve and worship a God who means business? As we continue our Advent preaching of the kerygma, we reach week 3: “What has God done about the brokenness of the world?” Fr. John Riccardo, in the Rescue Project, makes reference to Jesus as warrior and hunter on the cross. Specifically, he uses the term “ambush predator;” creatures that lie motionless and still, camouflaged with their environments, for one purpose: in order to attract prey. Jesus, seemingly helpless on the cross, is actually drawing the Enemy into the illusion that he—the Enemy—has the upper hand.
It may be highly counterintuitive, but it makes sense. The deceiver will ultimately be the one deceived. God was not about to leave His people abandoned in the grip of the Enemy. The Communion antiphon for this Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday, is pregnant with hope: Say to the faint of heart, Be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will come, and he will save us.
When we say “God means business,” it is not as though violence is His modus operandi. It is truly love that conquers death, because, as Scripture states, “Love is stronger than death” (Song of Songs 8:6). It is essential to bear in mind that our service and worship of God find their value and meaning only inasmuch as they are a response of love, to the One who is Love. Anyone who has ever loved knows that love is, indeed, a force with which to be reckoned. Love surely manifests in emotions—passion.
Yet, there is so much more to authentic love than mere feelings. Hence, when you find yourself in the midst of a relationship and you are “just not feeling it,” that is precisely when the deeper layers of love have the opportunity to come forward. This is something the culture—any culture—cannot offer us. We are so often “counseled” by the world to make an exit when the loving feelings are not present. Once more, the way of the Lord is unlike our ways. Once more, from the Word of God: But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
While it is not formally an Advent reflection, may I offer a video presentation for your consideration. I may actually have referenced it before on these pages. If so, then you can simply chalk it up to “wow, he must really like this: “How God Captures our Attention/What is that knocking: Poetry, Beauty and the Shock of Grace.” For me, it is a marvelous reflection on the power of desire and yet our hesitancy, often, truly to open ourselves to the power of God’s love, either out of fear or self-doubt or self-disdain. I pray that our journey through the kerygma will lead us, as individuals and as a community, to deep renewal of soul.
Let His Peace be with you,
Fr. Stephen
