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Fourth Sunday of Advent

There are two very important themes that are presented to us in the Gospel today. One we have touched on which is the fact that God is with us and the other one is the words “Do not be afraid” I think both of these are worth looking at with greater detail.

God is with us
We live in a society that is sceptical of God and religion where people seem not to believe. Maybe there is a deeper meaning. I believe that even in those who shy away from God there is a part of us that desires something other. I have some friends who say that they do not believe in God and yet ask for prayers of me when they have someone who is ill. There are others whose road seems long and can never really get in touch with the God who is with us.
And yet we believe that God is with us all the time. We notice him in the gentleness of another human being caring about us, he is with us in the kind words of another but he is especially with us in the sacraments and in prayer. Here at Mass we notice God with us in the Readings where God speaks to us through the sacred scriptures and then in the second part of the Mass we encounter in a special way God with us especially in the Sacrament of the Altar made present in the form of Bread and Wine and at Mass it is transformed in to God with us. This is why we have great respect for the Blessed Sacrament and when we come into His presence we are encountering the Divine here on Earth. When we come in procession to communion we are accepting God into our lives allowing Him to enter into our very being We humbly prepare to encounter the divine the God with us in this present time. This person who loves and cares for us is present to us.




Do not be afraid.
It used to be said and rather wrongly thought that it said do not be afraid 365 times in the bible in reality it is actually more like over 100 times. It is still a significant amount of times that God says to his people do not be afraid. One of the things I believe that happens to us is that we are afraid to love and afraid to let that love which is God in. But I believe that our fear goes a lot deeper than this. It is afraid to be known by the one who loves us. It is afraid to let the real person whom we are to stand up and be counted. To be afraid is not to be free and so the Lord wants us to be free in his presence able to be totally open too his love. God told Joseph through the angel that he could be free he does not need to be afraid because God will take care of it. Julian of Norwich said once “ Pray Hope and Don’t worry” We can pray to a God we are not afraid of, Hope that He will help us through when we are afraid and Don’t worry because God is with us always.

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