St. Gertrude Catholic Parish

O Come, O Come Emmanuel. It has been a grace and a blessing to hold my grandnephew and namesake, little Dominic Edward Kubacik in my arms. At eight weeks old he stretches and squeaks, smiles and grimaces, sleeps and squirms. I marvel at his perfect little hands and toes and nose and eyes. What a beautiful work of creation he is. What enormous possibilities he has. What life awaits him.O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Advent is the season of our potential waiting to be realized in the person of Jesus who comes to us as a little baby, a bundle of new life. The Messiah waiting to be born into our world is a reminder to us of our need to find God first inside of us. We can only do that by finding our true selves. And that search begins within us. The helplessness of the Savior born into our world as a baby is a sign of our God’s faith in us and willingness to work in and through us to make God’s loving presence a reality in our world.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel. So we light a candle in the darkness. We set up our Nativity Scenes. We pause and we pray in joyful expectation because it is Advent. What will the Child Jesus bring us? What will we find in the stillness of our hearts about our true selves that will make God’s love a living reality for us and for our world? What potential deep inside of us will become a reality as much as God’s love is made real in the upcoming Christmas miracle?

O Come, O Come Emmanuel. It is precisely in our own helplessness and our surrendering to it that salvation comes to our world. Even as we turn inward this Advent, we reach out to bring the Messiah to others and so transform our world.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

DJG

Filed under: From Fr. Grassi