4th Sunday of Advent 23.12.18 Fighting for life
We have images of Christmas which evoke peace, such as the Crib
scene, the general feeling of goodwill that goes with Christmas, the carols.
Unfortunately, however, there is a more violent aspect to Christmas.
There are the wars, and acts of terrorism, and crime in general; but another
kind of violence as well, that which results when good meets evil. That sets
off at least a spiritual violence, which has been going on since Lucifer was
cast out of heaven.
We, as Christians, are caught up in this battle. We are
battling for the Truth and the Light, to prevail against the deceptions of the
evil one
It is a life-and-death struggle, not always physical, but
always spiritual. Victory means eternal life; defeat means mortal,
death-dealing sin.
We fight over moral matters, things which concern whether or
not we obey Almighty God, or we think we can do better ourselves – things to do
with marriage, and family, and life; beliefs which have been in place for millennia,
are now being challenged and in danger of being overturned.
So a fairly average person now thinks it is alright to have
an abortion, to end life through assisted suicide, to marry someone of the same
sex, to say that gender has no meaning, to create babies outside of the womb,
to blaspheme God in works of ‘art’, to restrict the Church from being allowed
to proclaim or operate on its own beliefs, claiming we ‘discriminate’.
We can feel the rug being pulled from under us. Many of our
own number have lost confidence and direction, and gone over to the other side.
They have adopted secular views in place of the Christian position, allowing
themselves to be deceived by cunning falsehood.
The Church’s authority comes directly from God, so an attack
on the Church is an attack on God Himself. This is how serious it is.
We need to reaffirm our identity and mission. We are here to
serve God and to save as many souls as we can.
The truth does not change as God does not change. Stand therefore,
having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; above
all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts
of the evil one. (Ep 6,14-17)
You might find yourself the only person in your family or
workplace that still believes these things, but they are still true. It is
harder when one is in the minority but, Lord,
to whom shall we go? (Jn 6, 68)
If there are fewer standing with us, it is all the more necessary
that we stand and fight. There is work to be done.
We fight, but not as the other side does. We bless when they
curse (Rm 12,14); we seek to win them over rather than kill them. This is the way
of Christ Himself. He does not use force; He seeks to persuade.
Today’s Gospel: Make straight the way of the Lord. We are
giving His own world back to Him.
If we had obeyed Him from the start we would not be in all
this trouble. We are re-establishing the foundation of truth on which to
rebuild.
We will win eventually insofar as Our Lord will come again
in glory, and all His enemies will be under His feet.
But we want a happier ending than that. We want Him to be
welcomed as Saviour and not feared as Judge.
We want everyone to be saved, as He Himself does.
But for now the battle rages on. We will have some peace
over Christmas in terms of relaxing, but the urgency of the overall battle will
soon press in on us again. The fight will not last forever, but the result
will.
Save us, [Lord], from the fires of hell, and lead all souls
to Heaven…
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