4^th Sunday of Advent - A

Today's readings are preparing us for the recognition of the fundamental truth of our lives, the fundamental truth of Christmas:

What does it mean the word we have twice I today's readings: "EMMANUEL"? By the fact that God was born as a man He is for us EMMANUEL – GOD WITH US.

What does it mean for me that "God is with us"?

Since the nativity of Christ God is really with us! God became one among us. He took our nature; He became a man – God incarnated. He had taken on Himself the nature of our first parents and became a man like we, with all (but sin) consequences of this fact. This is not the simple act of solidarity; this is not an empty sign of sugary sentimentalism. This is the only one possible way to get us back home to the unity with God the Father. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:31

"si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos?"

"If God is with us, who can be against us?"

If God is with me, the true EMMANUEL – who can be against me? ONLY MYSELF!!

Maybe this is the truth we won't like to accept and this is why our lives are miserable and unhappy, because we don't accept this ultimate truth expressed by St. Augustine:

"God created us for Himself and we are unhappy until we rest in Him".

As long as I try to live without God, without recognizing the He created me for Himself and I can be happy only in Him … I will be upset and even fed-up, sick and tired, exasperated and annoyed.

God's coming in Bethlehem, the incarnation of the Son of God is for me the only chance, the only possibility of becoming happy and saved.

In one issue of the WCR (November 15, 2010) I read a short interview with Michael O'Brien - Canadian bestselling author and painter. In this interview he is saying:

(quote)

"World is sliding into darkness deeper than that before the birth of Christ. The big difference is that before Christ, the pagan world was "crawling" out of horror of sin and darkness but now Western civilization that has known Christ is denying Him and "sliding back" into it, by dictatorship of relativism and liberalism. Our enemies are not other human beings, but the real powers of darkness. We have rejected Christ and entered a satanic phase of history."

(unquote)

Dark and very pessimistic diagnosis but … is it not because we won't like to recognize that God is EMMANUEL – GOD WITH US. We constantly claim that He is against us. We accuse Him of the crime of not following our caprices and whims and we "liberate" ourselves from His presence, from His Love and ultimately from eternal live. We won't like God to be EMMANUEL – God with us, because He is limiting our freedom.

And this is the misery of our civilization.

Maybe for the end, a personal question: "Is God with me, or am I against God and after all against myself?"