As we heard in the Gospel, St. Luke mentioned the big names of historical first century Palestinian rulers to emphasize that the birth of Jesus, the Incarnation actually happened at a concrete time and place in history. Meaning -it is not just an abstract idea.
“All flesh – meaning - all people - shall see the salvation of God.”
What does salvation mean? When a person says, “I have been saved by the grace of God through Christ”, - it is theologically correct – but – for many – it may still sound abstract or mystical…
– so - what does salvation mean for each one of us in our daily life?
The Scriptures made salvation clear and concrete in the life of Christ.
Meaning - Jesus did not just preach or talk about it. He made salvation visible with His life…
He made God - a redeeming, saving, loving God - visible… so that all people could see him and know what God is like… Jesus is the Word of God, the Wisdom of God, the Love of God made visible… and the “Word became flesh”…
The doctrine of salvation becomes more understandable when it becomes visible in someone’s life. When you see love in action, you may not really be able to explain it, but you know what it is.
For example - at school - a teacher who cares for her students. She gives extra time to a student who is having difficulty. She comes early or she stays late. There is no extra pay. She is not even recognized for what she does. She does not have to do it… but, she is serious about her work and she cares about her students. You may not be able to explain that, but you recognize dedication when you see it. We can say the same thing about our parish ministers and volunteers.
Salvation has to do with people’s character and quality of life. And the greatest need of the church today is for that kind of preaching. People who are real and honest and loving and kind –they make salvation visible, and a visible salvation is the easiest kind to understand.
Not everyone can preach beautiful sermons or deliver lectures, but anyone can make salvation visible… How? with our own lives… just as Jesus did.
Jesus said: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)
In the Acts of the Apostles, “When the people saw the courage of the disciples, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus - that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)
St. Paul wrote to the Galatians: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.”
What is salvation? – it means all these things – having Jesus Christ in your life and therefore having those traits or virtues in your character.
When people look at you, when they deal or interact with you – do they see in you - love, and courage, and patience, and kindness, and self-control? Do they see humility, joy? Do they see someone who is at peace, who is patient, kind, gentle?
Salvation is not something mystical or magical, but something real and moral.
A life changed by the grace of God is a great image of salvation that people can see and which – people can understand and cannot deny.
To illustrate with a story - A new convert to Christianity was asked by his atheist peers about certain details on the life of Christ. He was not able to answer several of their questions about the life of Jesus and they started to mock him.
The convert just said: “I am just a simple man. I may not know all about the details on the life of Christ, about his miracles, but this much I know. I was an alcoholic, an addict and my life was a mess. I lost my job. I was in poor health. My wife and kids did not even want to be in the same room as I was… but when I surrendered my life to Christ, with Christ in my life, I found new meaning and purpose in my life.
I now have a new job and I have started to work things out again with my family… all by the grace of God through Christ. That’s miracle enough for me.”
So – my brothers and sisters in Christ - what difference did Christ make and continue to make in your life? How is salvation made visible in your life?
One person in whose life - Christ is real - is worth a thousand arguments.
When people look at you and see the joy and peace and serenity that radiates from you, regardless of what you are going through, they would like to be like you. They would like to be your friends.
And when that happens - then – you can in turn help them by showing them the way… like what John the Baptist did: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths..,” - so others will also encounter God personally.
The experience of God is like the experience of love. You can tell people about love - but they will not understand what you are talking about until they themselves experience it… experiential knowledge.
That is why God became one of us to show us God’s unconditional love and how to love and what life is all about. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God’s love for humanity.
Christ has already come in Jesus of Nazareth – His first coming. Christ will come again at the end of the world which we refer to as His second coming.
And during this in-between time – between the first and the second coming – The coming of Christ is also happening now – in the here and now - Jesus is knocking on the door of our minds and hearts so that He may enter and make us increase and abound in love for one another and for all… to become more a people of love.
We listen for that knock on the door of our hearts and the question is – Do we allow – are we willing to allow Christ into our lives to become our Lord.
That is what Advent is all about. We are always Advent people just as we are always Easter People. – we are always waiting in joyful hope for the coming of the Lord Jesus in our lives, whenever, however that might be.
The word Advent is a translation of the Greek word Parousia which means “presence” or, more accurately, “arrival” – meaning – the beginning of a presence, the presence of God.
God’s presence has already begun and we the faithful are the ones through whom God wishes to be present in the world. Through our faith, hope and love, God wants His light to shine in the world… through us.
We are waiting for Jesus to be fully present in our lives so that hopefully – eventually – by the grace of God - we can say what St. Paul said: “It is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me.”
Meaning - God’s love, grace and mercy – are more evident in everything we do.
That should be the focus of our prayer, meditations, fasting and examination of conscience during Advent. It is not Christmas yet; it is still Advent – otherwise, Christmas will be meaningless.
Like Mary, we are all called to give birth to Christ, so to speak, in our lives.
We celebrate the coming of Christ who made God visible for all to see. Now – we are faced with the same challenge of making Christ so real that people can see Christ through us… in the here and now - so that through us, “All people – all flesh – every person - shall see the salvation of our God.”
AMEN. God bless…
