Today we begin the new season of Advent. Our season’s theme will be, “The Season of Grace”.
And, today, as we begin let me give you the Good News. Today, as we began our service we prayed together, “Almighty God, give us grace.” And the good news is that such prayer has already been answered – and in abundance!
For as the Christmas Gospel will tell us, God entrusted humankind with Jesus, for “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Or in the words of Archbishop Jewell, in Jesus Christ, “God allows to be embraced by us.”
Unto us a Son is given, a Son who came full of grace, super-abundant grace.
So, in other words, our prayer asking for grace has already been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Son of “A daughter of Jerusalem”.
But grace has not been reserved for a time, a season. God’s grace was manifested in Jesus Christ, but grace did not die on a Good Friday. The miracle of grace is not reserved just to 34th Street, but began in God’s heart long before the world came into being, and will continue to reach even after the end of time and space.
But what do we mean by grace?
I am sure that most of you have gone through the experience when you find yourself thinking, “He/she was very accommodating – He/she was very gracious.”
Perhaps you were in a hurry to make to an appointment, and someone yields to let you in into a good parking slot. Or at the front desk, they fixed you with an appointment for next day, when nothing was available for the next month. Or someone goes the extra mile to help when you had to be in sick in bed.
But to understand the meaning of grace in the Bible you need to notch it up.
Think of a person who has hurt you the most. Not only in just run-of-the-mill being obnoxious but really pouring salt on the wound. Think of someone who not only is negative, but who really knows how to push your buttons – with glee in his or her eyes!
Now think of him or her knocking at your door, close to midnight, and saying, “I need ride to get some booze, but my car needs a jump start.”
Grace in the Scriptures, grace as the way which Jesus came to teach us, is not shutting off the door in the face of the incumbent and cranking up the volume on the earbuds just to avoid hearing the knocking at the door.
The grace which Jesus came to flesh out for us, is opening the door wide, and with a true and sincere heart saying, “Sure thing! – Let me grab the keys and I’ll drive you to 7/11.”
Now, just replace the bum at your door with yourself, and it is Jesus who is opening the door to you saying, “Come in here, give me hug!” That’s Grace, with capital “G”.
Today our gospel encourages us to the signs, the signpost of God’s activity in the world. And some of those signs are terrible indeed.
But let me encourage you to look beyond the signs of decay and despair and to look at the signs of God’s goodness and grace. The land of shadows is on the way out, as the dawn of a new age of light is dawning.
The days are surely coming. Days of abundant grace, hope, and newness of life. For in Jesus, the Child of Bethlehem, the child of a Daughter of Sion, God is making good what He promised from old.
So, my friends, my brothers and sisters, chin up! The Season of Grace is upon us, a new and never-ending season.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for answering to our prayer in such abundance. Thank you for showering our lives with buckets of grace, love, and hope. As we look to the days ahead, may we walk with a spring on our steps in the knowledge that all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well in Jesus Christ, your Holy Child, and our Heavenly Brother. Amen.
Fr. Gustavo
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