Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Christ Comes to Set Us Free

The Entrance Antiphon of today's liturgy reminds us that "Christ our King is coming, he is the Lamb foretold by John."  In the Collect of today's liturgy, we lift our voices, saying: "Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who are weighed down from of old by slavery beneath the yoke of sin, may be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of your Only Begotten Son." 

Each one of us, every day, experiences the "slavery beneath the yoke of sin" that weighs down upon us.  We may do things or say things that we regret having said or done, or regret not having said or done things that we knew needed to be done or said. Also, our thoughts may be anything but kind. We, as well, may find ourselves grumbling or complaining about something, resentful of what is being asked of us as a committed responsible member of a religious community or as a father/a mother, a child, a student, an employee.  We may even tell God that what is expected of us is too much to ask of us.

Let us turn to the Lord and ask to "be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of [God's] Only Begotten Son."  Let us acknowledge our  weaknesses and/or our complaining about the challenges we face in our lives, knowing, in faith, that because of our humanity we need God's help. In graciously, humbly and courageously meeting our responsibilities in life, we need God to infuse us with the graces of the Holy Spirit to be faithful and committed, to hold nothing back, as Jesus held nothing back for us as He gave His life in self-sacrificing love on the cross. On the crosses of our lives, may we do the same for others as Jesus did for us--pour ourselves out for the other's sake, "bread" shared and broken as at every Eucharistic sacrifice of the Holy Mass!

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