This fourth and final week of Advent’s “memento mori” (taking a moment at the beginning of each day to contemplate the truth “I will die” and what that means about how “I will live” today) is spurred by Micah’s prophecy in today’s first reading:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathahtoo small to be among the clans of Judah,from you shall come forth for meone who is to be ruler in Israel;whose origin is from of old,from ancient times.
Before immediately thinking about the physical place where Jesus was born “O Little town of Bethlehem,” consider that the town was so small—a rural, nothing of a town—and so small that none of the towns around it wanted anything to do with it or its inhabitants. Think of a desolate, rural town located out in the middle of nowhere in western Oklahoma where the only things that are likely to pass through it are zephyrs and giant tumbleweeds.
It’s this town—the absolutely least and most unlikely of places—that God chose to the place to became incarnate in the form of His only begotten Son.
With that image in mind, think of that desolate, rural town in the middle of nowhere in western Oklahoma as an ordinary human being—someone like you and me—whose heart has grown desolate due to the effects of sin. No living thing passes through it because the terrain is so parched and lifeless. Moreover, there’s absolutely nothing this heart is able to give that of any value. This is the place God has chosen to make His only begotten Son incarnate!
All this Season of Advent, the prophets have been telling us that God will be made incarnate and His name will be “Emmanuel,” the Hebrew word meaning “God’s essence [His “spirit”] is with us.” All too often and as scripture does, we rightly ascribe that name to Jesus forgetting as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminded us in today’s Epistle, “By [God’s] will, we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
In short: “Emmanuel,” means “God’s essence is with us.” That’s you and me because God has willed to be made flesh in His only begotten Son. Through the offering of his body, all of us have been consecrated “once for all.” Full stop. Period. “God’s essence is with us.” End of discussion.
That raises two questions:
- Why don’t so many of us live with that awareness?
- Is it because we don’t believe God’s essence is with us?
The answer to both questions is “Yes” and the reason isn’t complicated: We’re “sleepy” Catholics. Not making a daily memento mori, we spend our days surviving in Bethlehem—that desolate, rural town located out in the middle of nowhere in western Oklahoma—depressed and sad at how better others who live in Jerusalem—or, in our case, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, and even St. Louis—have it. People really want to be there because that’s where the action is, so much fun is to be had, and who knows what else. If only we could high tail it out of Bethlehem and live in those locales, each day would be filled with so much awe, wonder, excitement, and countless adventures yet to be experienced!
Yet, God has chosen none of those places to be made incarnate because the people who live there need to be saved. So, God has chosen Bethlehem—the hearts of “sleepy” Catholics”—as the place to be made incarnate. Yet, rather than allow God to do that within each and every one of us, we make “sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings” which, the author of the letter to the Hebrews reminded us, “God neither desires nor takes delight” because all those do is fulfilling the law, entirely devoid of its spirit, namely, “Emmanuel.”
That represents our challenge from Scripture for this fourth week of Advent: To awaken from our sleep and to do what God desires and in which God takes delight by opening our hearts to God saying “Behold, I come to do your will.”
Upon awakening each day this week that challenge requires each of us to recall the God has willed to be made incarnate in us—this week’s memento mori—and to pray “Behold, I come to do your will” and, like Mary, to set out and travel into the day with haste to bring “tidings of great joy and gladness” to those who are merely surviving in what’s really “hill country” not the place “sleepy” Catholics fantasize it to be, feeling depressed and sad because they believe God’s essence is not with them.
Demonstrating even a little interest in them—take them a plate of homemade Christmas cookies, some candy canes, or a small gift—and they’ll feel God’s spirit leaping within, just as Elizabeth and her unborn child did when Mary appeared at the door. And, even if they don’t respond as Elizabeth did—saying “Blessed are you! How does this happen to me that God should visit me? Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord is fulfilled”—we will have done God’s will. After all, look what they eventually did to God’s only begotten Son!
This is how “WOKE” Catholics try to live each and every day. Knowing that God’s essence is with them, they bring the good news—the gospel—of joy and gladness to those who believe that God isn’t with them. It is for this purpose God greatness reaches to the ends of the earth and His peace transforms it. If we’re to “do this, in memory of me,” our daily memento mori is that jst as God did for Jesus, God has also prepared a body for us and, as Jesus did each day, our daily prayer of consecration this week will be “Behold, I come to do your will.”
When we “do this” in memory of God’s only begotten Son by bringing tidings of great gladness and joy to those who believe God’s essence is not with them, it will also be said of us:
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.
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