December 24: Promises / Promesas

Yesterday, the Church encouraged us to sit with St. John the Baptist – in order to ponder his important role in announcing the coming (and eventual arrival) of the Son of God. Today, the final day of Advent, the Church offers us St. John’s father Zechariah in order that we might sit with him for a time..

The background to Zechariah’s song (Luke 1, 67-79) is the biblical belief that God’s promises are fulfilled. When, at first, Zechariah didn’t believe, he was rendered mute until the day the promised event occurred. Eight days after St. John’s birth, Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth took him to be circumcised, following the ritual commanded to Abraham. (Genesis 17, 12) When the time came to name the child, Elizabeth insisted that he be given the name John, as God had prescribed. His friends turned to Zechariah, who confirmed the name — and immediately he regained his speech and began praising God, whose promises are always fulfilled.

Zechariah’s song can become our own this Christmas Eve, as we pray for a more personal awareness of God in our lives. Like him, we see light on the horizon, and wait in hope for it to become the full, dazzling light of God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ. We live between the already and the not-yet. A light has dawned, but hasn’t yet reached the darkness in and around us. 

As disciples of Christ, we live in a kind of perpetual “Advent-waiting,” knowing that the divine light has come to our world, yet we are still waiting for it to shine in fullest measure. We may even doubt that such a glorious future is possible. But, with Zechariah, we can also look up at the dawn, as the first shimmering of the radiance that God has in store for his people. All day today, don’t forget: God’s promises are always fulfilled.   

The Christmas Masses in our parish will be: Wednesday at 5pm and 7pm (the latter in Spanish), and 9am Thursday morning.

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La promesa hecha por el Señor se cumplía finalmente con el nacimiento de Jesús. Dios liberaría a su pueblo, nada menos que por medio de su propio Hijo. ¿Fue finalmente cumplida la promesa? Era el principio del cumplimiento. Todos los elementos estaban allí presentes para hacerla real y efectiva, excepto el pueblo que tendría que ponerla en práctica. Porque Dios nos creó libres, y eso significa que confía en nosotros, en nuestra aceptación y colaboración, en nuestro amor como respuesta a su amor. Nuestra tarea perpetua es de facilitar a Dios el que pueda hacer que se hagan realidad entre nosotros su paz y amor – con y por medio de Jesús. Por eso Jesús vino a nosotros como uno de nosotros.

Habrá Misas Navideñas en nuestra parroquia el miércoles a las 5pm (Ingles) y 7pm (Español), y el jueves a las 9am. (No habrá Confesiones ni Adoración en estos días.)