December 18th

December 18, 2022
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Readings: Is 7:10-14/Rom 1:1-7/Mt 1:18-24
Julian Ohizu: Campus Minister
Dear friends in Christ, this Sunday is the fourth Sunday and the last of the
Sundays of the Advent season. We are heading closer to Christmas, and we cannot
be joyful enough. We cannot thank God enough for the grace He continues to grant
us throughout this season of Advent. At this moment, it is important for us to look
back and ask ourselves how our Advent journey has been. We can begin this week
by asking ourselves some pertinent questions. Can we say that we are ready to
welcome the Messiah King of the universe at Christmas with a clean heart and
mind? Are we ready to delve into the Christmas spirit yet or are we just preparing
in the flesh just like those who do not know the Lord.
In fact, incase we have missed the mark and the reason for celebrating
Christmas, in case we have been distracted or drifted away from the spiritual
meaning of Advent, this fourth Sunday of Advent gives us another opportunity to
refocus our attention to the Child Jesus who is to be born in Bethlehem in the next
seven days. This Sunday, we once again focus on a particular theme of this
Advent season, which is the hope we have as Christians in the coming of Christ
Emmanuel. This Sunday reminds us that there is hope for every Christian because
our Lord comes to shine light into the many darkness of our souls and life. This
darkness could be in the form of sickness where Christ brings healing, death of a
loved one, where Christ promises eternal life, sin, where Christ asks us to bring all
our burdens to him. It could be the temptation of making moral choices and
decisions even amid oppositions, where Christ promises us that he is the Truth and
he who remains in the Truth, he would abide with that person forever. It could also
be in the form of the uncertainty tomorrow brings, but when Christ arrives in those
uncertainties, he brings an assurance of the Great Provider who holds the world in
His hands.
This Fourth Sunday has as its message the great love God has for His
people. That love is personified in the person Jesus Christ the Messiah of Israel. In
fact, we can say once again that Christmas is a celebration of God’s love for
humankind. It is important then that we do not take that love for granted.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God says that he would do nonetheless to share
with all of us and the inhabited world his unconditional love which he manifested
through His only Begotten Son Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, God continues to
assure us that even amid the challenges we encounter in this world that he would
be there for us because we are His beloved creatures. How do we know that?

Because on the Cross, Jesus does not hesitate to die for us even as we are still
sinners.
The readings for today presents to us an assurance that God’s Love, Hope,
Peace, and Joy can come our way once again, because the Love of God has been
made incarnate in the flesh and born of the Virgin, and that is what we celebrate
most joyfully at Christmas. Therefore, if our Christmas preparations and
celebrations have been mostly or even entirely secular and worldly in nature,
perhaps it is not yet too late for us to change our direction and focus. Christmas is
still a full week away from today, and there are a lot of things that we can do in
this one week to prepare ourselves so that we can celebrate Christmas most
worthily and meaningfully.