The time to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ, is almost here; the time of preparing is almost at an end. Later this week, God willing, we will celebrate the joyous event of our Lord’s Incarnation, making Himself one with us, that we might also become one with Him.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found it easier, in some ways, to avoid getting caught up in what our culture calls the “Christmas spirit” because December 25th in the Church comes thirteen days after the world celebrates that date. Even so, we need to be careful not to lose sight of an important fact: as we hear the hymns of the Church celebrating His coming, this infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and placed in a manger, we need to remember not only His coming then, but that He will also come again – and the form of His coming will not be the same.
The world was – or, at least, the faithful were – awaiting His coming; yet who, apart from His parents, and some shepherds, and the magi, recognized Him when He came? The woman at the well said to Him, “We know that when Messiah comes…” The Jews knew that God would one day send them a Deliverer, a Messiah, of the lineage of David the King; but only a relative handful recognized Him for who He was at that time. We know He will come again – we say this at every Divine Liturgy, in the Creed, the “Symbol of Faith” – He will come again, in glory, to judge both the living and the dead. Will we recognize Him when He comes again? Will we acknowledge Him to be our King and our God?
We should be looking for Him, you know – we should be getting ready. Yes, the time of preparation for the feast is drawing to a close; but that doesn’t mean that we are ready to meet Him when He comes again. How else are we to make sense of what has happened in the past week on the other side of the world, where an earthquake triggered a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean, killing over 123,000 people, some of them almost 3,800 miles away, in Somalia, on the east coast of Africa? The news reports sometimes refer to it as “a disaster of Biblical proportions” – acknowledging that there are powers at work in the world that are beyond our ability to comprehend, much less control. Some ask: Was this the wrath of God? Was this a punishment? We must certainly say that, if nothing else, this must be taken as a warning. There will be wars, and rumors of wars; nations rising against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms; famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. Are we living as if the great and terrible Day of Judgment could take place at any time? Are we ready for His coming again?
The first time our Lord, came, there was no room for Him at the inn; and He entered this world in a cave, where animals were stabled. When He comes to each of us now, reaching out with love, we must ask ourselves: is there room for Him in our hearts? And even if there is room, what is the condition of our heart? Have we labored to clean it and to air it out, so that it is bright and fresh and a pleasant place to dwell? Or have we allowed our hearts to be stables, or worse than stables, filthy, unclean, and no fit place for our Lord and King to enter, much less dwell?
Brothers and sisters: We rightly look forward with joyful anticipation to the time when we celebrate our dear Savior’s birth. We rightly fast, and pray, in preparation for the celebration of the feast. But let us not drop our guard, or be less vigilant in addressing our sins and passions, even as the feast is now at hand. In the midst of the feast, let us always recall that He will one day come again – and that day may be closer than we can even imagine. And so we must ask: are we prepared for when He comes again?
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