“There has stood in the midst of you One
whose shoelace I am not worthy to undo.”
The Mass in Latin and English
Third Sunday of Advent
Dominica Tertia Adventus
Ember Days in Advent
Msgr. Ronald Knox was probably one
of the best Catholic writers of the early part of the twentieth century. In
his book, The Belief of Catholics, he suggests that many
non-Catholics have difficulty with the way Catholics honor the Virgin Mary
as the Blessed Mother of God because they don't even think of Christ Himself
as being divine.
They have said that we deify her; that is not because we exaggerate
the eminence of God's Mother, but because they belittle the eminence
of God.... They refuse to honor the God- bearing Woman because
their Christ is only a God-bearing Man.
More and more frequently we see that
Knox was correct, as we encounter people who think of Jesus Christ as being
nothing more than a great humanitarian; a great philosopher with wonderful
ideals of world peace and brotherly love.
And, not surprisingly, if we follow
the same line of thinking, our concept of God the Father is reduced in the
same manner. God, if modern man accepts the concept of God at all, is
reduced to some sort of powerful pantheistic “Force” that permeates the
universe—or—if He is thought of in human terms, He is no more than the Great
Architect who built the universe like a giant clock, wound up its spring,
and walked away.
Today, even among Catholics, it is
not uncommon to find people who think along these lines. God is no longer
the center of their world, nor of their worship; having been replaced by man
himself as the measure of all things. They no longer seek their perfection
in knowing and doing the will of God, but rather in human achievements. Art
and science and philanthropy have replaced prayer and penance and meditation
as the means by which man pursues his supposed destiny:
In order to perfect himself in his specific order, the person must
do good and avoid evil, be concerned for the transmission and
preservation of life, refine and develop the riches of the
material world, cultivate social life, seek truth, practice good
and contemplate beauty.
It is precisely for this reason that
true Catholics follow the lead of the Church in this season, reading and
meditating on the portions of Sacred Scripture that remind us that Jesus
Christ is indeed truly God, as well as being truly human.
We have the testimony of John the
Baptist in today's Gospel: “I am not worthy to loose the strap of His
sandal.
In the daily readings we have been
following the Book of Isaias the prophet: “A virgin shall conceive and
bring forth a Son, and He shall be called ‘Emmanuel,’” meaning ‘God
is with us.’
The prophet tells us that this self-same would be “God the Mighty, Father of
the world to come.”
And we read in Matthew's and Luke's Gospels that
Isaias was correct; that the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ fulfilled the
prophesy.
Throughout the year we read of the
miracles that Jesus worked—of demons cast out, of the lame and the blind and
the deaf cured, even several people resurrected from the dead, to say
nothing of our Lord’s resurrection after being crucified by the Roman
soldiers. One or two of these things we might be able to attribute to
chance—but only the Son of God could have worked so many, and with no
recorded instance of failure.
And we also have our Lord's
testimony about Himself—before the Jews in saying that “I and the Father are
one,”
who, in turn told Pontius Pilate: “We have a law; and according to the law
he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
We have His testimony before the High Priest, who said to Him: I adjure thee
by the living God, that thou tell us if thou be the Christ the Son of God.
Jesus saith to him: ‘Thou hast said it.’”
Now normally, we tend to take what a
man says about himself with some suspicion. We ask ourselves if he is a
trustworthy person; does he have something to gain by deceiving us? So
those who want to think of Christ as nothing more than great philosopher and
humanitarian can do so only if they are willing to believe that He was also
the world's greatest liar. A bit hard to accept, but not as hard as trying
to figure out why a man would deceive the authorities in order to get
himself crucified!
Saint John says it rather poetically
in that Gospel we read at the end of most Masses, “The Word was God ... and
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
In these few words, we have the
whole significance of this Advent season—a preparation to celebrate the
birth of God among His people. Not some impersonal “Force” that operates
the universe at a distance, and not just a great philosopher with a lot of
high sounding truths—but, rather, the birth of God among His people. And
not the birth of a God who comes in vengeance, but rather the birth of a God
who so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son—the God who loves
us and asks only to be loved by us in return.
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