“O Lord”
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Third Week of Advent
Jer 23:5-8/Mt 1:18-25 (Lectionary #194)
The Responsorial Psalm is the same: “Justice shall flourish in his time and fullness of peace forever” (Psalm 72). But now we ask how Jesus as “Leader” will bring this about.
Jeremiah 23:5-8 tells us God will “raise up a righteous shoot (branch) to David… to reign and govern wisely…. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel dwell in security.”
The O Antiphon tells us this will come about through the wisdom of his laws: “O Leader of the House of Israel, giver of the law to Moses on Sinai.…” But Jesus does not save us by laws alone. The antiphon continues, “come to rescue us with your mighty power.” Good laws can bring about justice, but Jesus does much more than that. The “fullness of peace” he gives is the peace of knowing that our sins have not just been “forgiven” and our lives re-directed, but that our sins have been taken away. They are no longer part of us or of our history. How? No human power can erase history.
True, but in Matthew 1: 18-25 the angel makes it clear that the son of Mary will not be just human: Mary’s virginity was proof that Jesus was conceived “through the Holy Spirit.” The absence of a human father is proof of the divine Father. Therefore, the one who came to be with us in Jesus is God Himself.
Joseph is to name the child “Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus can do this because he is divine. Our sins are “taken away” — our history erased — because of the mystery that took place on Calvary, the mystery we celebrate in every Mass: Jesus took us, with our sins, into his body on the cross. When he died we died “in him” and our history ceased. When he rose, we rose in him, to live as a “new creation,” his continuing, extended, risen body on earth, free from sin (2Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).
All who have risen in Christ are a “new creation.” The “old self,” the self with sins, “was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed.” We rise with no record of sin to live a new life as Christ’s risen body (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20).
This is why John calls Jesus the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Our redemption is a mystery beyond forgiveness: our sins are “taken away.” Jesus does this through the mystery of his death and rising. He is a Savior who gives, not just justice, but “fullness of peace forever.” He leads us, not just by laws, but from within. What saves our lives from veering off to destructiveness is being guided and empowered by the life of Jesus and his Spirit within us. He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Initiative: If you want Jesus to save your life on this earth, live in him! Interact consciously with him, trying to live and act as his own body.
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