Audio:
Written:
Let us continue on our journey to Christmas….
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled….
This song speaks of angels announcing our Savior’s birth.
There is a backstory to this—kind of like Star Wars (you may have to watch the
previous six episodes if you are going to understand this 7th
installment…). If we want to understand what happens at Christmas, and why
there are angels “harking,” we are going to have to understand the backstory—which
will require us to go back to the beginning of Genesis (and even before the
beginning, as weird as that sounds). For, before there was Eden and the serpent
and so on, there was a war between the good angels who loved the Lord and other
angels (who were created good) but who chose not to love the Lord. The bad
angels—called demons—rebelled and there was a battle between Lucifer (Satan) with
his minions and Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and all the good angels (including
our own guardian angels).
We know that Satan lost and was kicked out of heaven. But
the battle did not remain in heaven; the battle was also taken to Eden. It is
there that Adam is supposed to do battle with the serpent, the devil, but Adam
does not. And so he and Eve fall into sin: they choose not-God.
And so it happens that all of humanity, we who are the
generations of Adam and Eve, fall into sin and darkness, cast out from Eden in
a kind of exile which humanity continued throughout her history—seen also today
in our first reading. Israel had been taken into captivity by her enemies; she
had become a people that walked in darkness, praying to see a great light. They live with a hope of restoration, of being returned not only to Eden, but to the
heavenly Jerusalem. There was an awaiting for this restoration that would come
through the Savior, the Messiah, who would bring her peace and return her to
union with God.
That is where peace truly comes from, right? It is when
humanity is separated from God that we lose peace. After Adam and Eve
had fallen, their sons entered into darkness such that Cain killed Abel. So, we
know that when we are not at peace with God, we are not at peace with one
another. Nations at war!
The Messiah would come, the Prince of Peace, who would
not simply bring peace, but who is peace. And so we hear:
Hark! the herald angels sing!
What does this mean? It means: look! awake! pay
attention! Over here is the Messiah! Hark! The one we have expected for so long! The
one who will finally bring us peace! Hence the line,
God and sinners reconciled.
That’s the whole point of Christmas, isn’t it?—that God
should enter into our very existence so as to reconcile us with God and thus
with others too, to bring about restoration and peace.
And how does this Messiah come? He comes as a little
babe:
Peace on earth and mercy mild.
Mercy, mild. Not severe mercy—severe mercy is what we see
in the Old Testament. We see wars, death, and illness. And why? Because Israel
in the Old Testament did not listen. What moved them were things like illness
and death and hunger and war. They didn’t understand the logic of God. God had
to speak their language. They were a Bedouin tribe.
Over the course of history, God prepares them to receive
not a severe mercy, but a mercy mild. A mercy so mild, so un-threatening—that it
is a babe!
Recently, I had the privilege of baptizing a baby at St.
John’s NICU. And as mom was holding her little child—all of one pound and a few
ounces—I baptized him (God and sinners
reconciled). And in that moment, I saw how vulnerable God was in mercy,
so mild…
God could have come with storm troopers; He could have
come as Darth Vader or any military leaders of our world. But how does God
come? As a little, vulnerable babe. That’s the invitation of mercy mild. An
invitation He gives us now in this Year of Mercy.
We can then hear the next lines:
Joyful all ye nations rise!
Join the triumph of the skies!
The Triumph! Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, our guardian
angels—they were victorious in battle. And now the Messiah comes to bring US
victory. And over what? Over sin. Victory given in baptism and, when we make a
mess of that, victory in the confessional.
Yes, it is in the confessional that we have victory over
sin. We say to sin and to the devil: you shall not go any further! It is like
Darth Vader in the final scene of the last Star Wars movie. Vader, he who was
so evil, he had to choose—between good and evil—and when he did, finally
throwing the evil Emperor down, the once-evil Vader became good. His mask comes
off… He was victorious over evil. He was finally free, finally at peace.
To confess our sins is to participate in the triumph of
the skies, of the victory of the angels and the Messiah. Indeed, there will be
more rejoicing in heaven not over the ninety-nine who are righteous, but over
the one sinner who repents (Lk 15:7). The angels rejoice, and why? Because the
sinner, when he repents, has conquered sin and participates in the victory.
And there, in the victory, there is joy and there is
peace.
When was the last time you were at peace? When was the
last time you were “good” with God and at peace with Him? When was the last
time you were at peace with your family? When was the last time you had peace
in your heart?
Our Lord wants to give you that peace. That is why He
comes to you this Christmas. This is the point of Christmas: to bring us peace
as God and sinners reconciled.
If it has been over a year since we’ve gone to
confession, then we have missed out on what Christmas is truly about: the gifts
of God’s peace. If you haven’t been to confession in over a year, it is time to
go to confession and receive what Christmas is truly about: your reconciliation
and your triumph over evil.
If it has been twenty years, come back. We hear
confessions all the time and it is an honor. It is not too late! Now is the
time. Now is the day of the Lord’s victory. Now is the day of peace!
This Wednesday, we will have a special time for
confessions. Come and enter the triumph of the skies!
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled
Joyful all ye nations rise!
Join the triumph of the skies!
With angelic hosts proclaim:
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!
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