[ Today's Readings ]
John is proclaiming one greater than himself. He is giving testimony so that we can be ready to receive Jesus the Messiah. The point of this season is not simply to rejoice in the burning and shining light of celebration of Christmas and then to get on with business as usual. The point of this season is to prepare to receive Jesus more deeply so that as we walk through the next year with him, seeing all the works that the Father gives him to accomplish, we can more and more realize that he is sent by the Father. We can make him, more and more, the LORD of our lives.
Christmas, like Christianity in general, is not something to be done and forgotten. It is something that is meant to permanently change us. It is meant to permeate all that we are. That is the meaning of the feast for which we prepare.
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
If we embrace this coming feast we are transformed into offerings pleasing to God whereas before the coming of Christ nothing we can do is pleasing to him. We are then among the gentiles who love the name of the LORD and become his servants. We are brought in to his covenant and permitted to enter the holy mountain, joyful house of prayer, the Catholic Church.
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
So let us not rejoice in the burning and shining light of Christmas only for the season. Let us prepare so that we can welcome Jesus more deeply into our lives. He is meant to be born in our hearts and not just in history. But he will not force himself on us. We must welcome and invite him. The more we do the more he fills us, the more we made joyful in his house of prayer for the coming year.
The earth has yielded its fruits;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
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