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December 17, 2016“You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Mt 1:21)
We are waiting for a Savior.
One who is mighty enough and gentle enough to save us from our folly.
Come, O Wisdom…
One whose fiery Lordship melts and reforms us into a people after his own heart.
Come, O Adonai…
One who is so deeply rooted in our history of falling and rising that he bursts forth into material reality as its flower and fruit.
Come, O Root of Jesse…
One who can unlock the deep cavern of the human heart and reveal his presence there.
Come, O Key of David…
One who sheds light improbably, impossibly, where darkness rules and hope has died.
Come, O Dawn…
One desired with the deep memory of clay, who alone can make us one at last, as he formed us to be.
Come, O King…
One who is with us more intimately than was ever imagined, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone.
Come, O Emmanuel…
Who could have imagined, what prophet or what sage, that this is what God meant by Emmanuel? A speck of matter, a scrap of flesh, a child in the womb. One of us.
“Do not run away, Adam, for God is with us! Do not be afraid, O human being, do not take fright at the sound of God’s name, for God is with us! He is with us in the likeness of flesh, with us for our welfare. He has come for our sake, as one of us, like us, subject to suffering.
(Bernard of Clairvaux, Second Sermon for Advent)
Image: Marc Chagall