A Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

+ “The Lord is now close; come let us adore Him.” By the constant repetition of this verse at the Invitatory of matins each ferial day from the third Sunday of Advent the Sacred Liturgy makes clear the objectivity with which our Lord comes. Our response makes no difference to the reality of His Incarnation, and the acts through which He freely gave Himself for us – they are historical events which cannot be changed. Yet we have an obligation to render Him the adoration which is His due as our Creator, as our Redeemer, as our God.

Truly the Lord is close to all humanity, even beyond his omnipotence and Fatherly solicitude, He became the lowest of man, born into poverty, and knowing all human suffering more acutely than anybody else can. He is, furthermore, more intimately connected to each individual than the person Himself and guards him like the apple of His eye.

Yet it is often very difficult to accept such a reality: how can God allow so much evil in the world? How is it that there can be such great suffering? How is it that God’s own Church through which God offers His channels of grace has suffered so much persecution throughout history? But it is worse when one considers that the Church has at times acted more in a political manner than in the salvific role she is given – even to the point of lording it over the nations.

Many of these trials are due entirely to the sin of man – against whose free will God will not interfere. It is rather, in contrast, that the closer a man gets to truly working according to grace the more the evil one will interpose obstacles to prevent the grace of God working through him. Ever will he do all that is in his power to blind us to the proximity of Our Lord without any regard as to what agent he uses as long as it is effective. Indeed, he will try and turn even the very graces God sends us unto our destruction.

We can, nonetheless, by trusting in God to grant us, and by praying for, the grace of perseverance no matter how grave the obstacle, render even these very obstacles unto the glory of God. He will never demand of us anything that is impossible, nor fail to offer us the grace to overcome whatever must be overcome on a given occasion – even if that means putting aside some of our natural human concerns and responsibilities. He will stay close to us no matter how completely He is hidden, providing that we never completely give in to discouragement and despair. For these sins can truly be against the Holy Ghost.

Not all good works are in our power. It is easy to find even that which is within our responsibility to be beyond our strength. But God has not come to accuse us. When our strength fails, we must do what little we can, filled with the fear of God. On the day of judgment, He will examine the heart to see that in all things one has truly sought God, no matter how incapable we are to accomplish all that seems to be necessary, or that we want to do.

This is by no means an excuse for inaction – in contrast it gives an urgency to our actions. The hands follow swiftly from the heart. It is now that the Lord is close: It is now that we must come to adore Him. But this adoration cannot be relegated as something that is accomplished entirely by prayer. Certainly, prayer is necessary, but it can never be used as an excuse to put aside what we can do to assure justice. Our acts must be a response to His grace given to us, as well as to our prayer by which we listen to Him calling to us and inviting Him to walk on the path of life (cf. RB prologue).

Echoing the Invitatory from matins, in the Gradual of this Mass we sing: “the Lord is close to all who call Him: all who call Him in truth.” By making the proximity of the Lord dependent on the truth of man’s cry before God, we enter another dimension of what it is for God to be close to us. It is not a denial that God is ever and always more intimate to every one of us than we ourselves; yet it adds another aspect to His treatment of us. Unquestionably, we can in no sense merit or deserve that God should be close to us for He is infinitely greater than us and was under no obligation to even create us. Yet He wants us to love Him freely and to choose Him. He knows if we seek Him for some ulterior motive or self-gain. Rather what He asks is that we love Him for His own sake for there is nothing and no one more worthy of our love. This is why it is God alone whom we adore.

God will always listen to our prayer – yet His answer is often not that which we expect or want, it is the answer we need for our salvation and, perhaps also for the salvation of those around us.
In these final days of preparing for the great feast of Our Lord’s Nativity we must ever be aware of what it is we are celebrating in the feast – Our Lord is now close; come let us adore Him.

Our adoration of Him will be worthy if it is accomplished in prayer and in good works – for the truth of neither can be guaranteed without the other. Let us take courage from knowing that God has become man, in order that He might suffer the cruellest death for us. He will not abandon us for as long as we trust in Him – come let us adore Him. +