“FULLNESS OF TIME IS NOW, AND EVEN MORE SO--TOMORROW”
Saint Matthew 1: 18-25
The Eve of The Nativity of our Lord: 24 December Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
Not “Ho, Ho, Ho” but Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! Not Hollywood and Wallstreet marketing firms’ version of a fat-man in a red suit, but a real Saint Nicholas 4 centuries after this birth. A true Bishop that refused the “Ho, Ho, Ho” of heresy by punching Arius in the mouth over his refusal to confess the Homoousios of the Nicene Creed. The Baby in the manger, the Baby sucking milk from His mother’s breast was GOD…Homoousios, i.e. of the same substance with God The Father, the 1st Person of The Blessed Trinity.
There is only one story. The Lord’s story is all-in-all. You are just so blessed and filled with supernal joy to believe it—to celebrate it. The Easter Story and the Nativity story are one story. This story weaves throughout all of Holy Scripture to be sure, but these are the great, exciting climaxes. You believe, the recounting of the events, both because the authors gave their own lives insisting that all they wrote was true and accurate, and ALSO, because the same Holy Ghost that guided their pens with veracity and infallibility also took that Word—that Jesus—and breathed it into your soul. The same Spirit that “overcame” Saint Mary and generated her pregnancy without any cooperation from man, allowing her to carry in her womb the fertilized egg of God, the zygote of God, the fetus of God, the days old/weeks old/months old unborn baby of God; and which allowed her to give birth to The Infant God she quickly wrapped in swaddling clothes; is the Spirit who overcame your fallen enemy old damnable nature and implanted life and light in your soul. Both of these births—Christ’s birth and your re-birth In Him, happened the same way—through The Word—through not the reproductive organs but through and by the ear.
Mary was a Virgin. This was to fulfill the prophecy of Saint Esaias. This was to make clear that her offspring, having no human/earthly father had but one Father: God the Father, almighty maker of heaven and earth. This babe is Son of The Most High and Son of God, Emmanuel. This child’s name, before taking on His mother’s flesh and blood at His conception on March 25th, was His nature and existence: I AM. In Hebrew this four-letter word is taken from the verb of “Being,” “Doing” “Existing” always…i.e. Alpha and Omega…the same yesterday, today, and forever. But even before the physical enfleshment, The Son, was perfect in “being” by the doing of Salvation. The Old Testament is saturated with His care, love, mercy, and forgiveness. But now…
But now all heaven and earth is ripped asunder. Now the very universe, time, space, location, and reality…is torn open when that Holy Baby’s head crested in the Still Virginal Maiden’s womb. The Light shone forth! He enters not just this world, but your world, your life, your death, and your resurrection. He came to seek and save that/those who were lost in darkness. His Name, The Baby’s Name, the Man’s name is Jesus—Saving One. The young man born in The House of Bread and maturing in the northern region of Nazareth of Galilee, a “land of Gentiles” as well as Jews, both sitting in the “shadow of death,” would be their and your Great Joshua—Jesus—Deliverer and Redeemer from sin, death, and Satan. So…
You don’t just accept, acquiesce in Saint Luke’s chronological facts, you JOY in them. Your joy is produced by the same Angels, the same glad/good tidings shared with the lowly, smelly, miserable, sinning shepherds. The Gloria in Excelsis didn’t occur once and then fade away (though the angelic host did absent themselves visually—the Shepherds after all had to move on out and get to Bethlehem’s Manger) … but the Angel’s song and its constraining force and movement reverberates this very evening as it does EVERY single Lord’s day…every Sunday and High Feast Day. Because Christmas is a Feast…not just a day off from work to indulge yourselves and others in meaningless consumer gifts of mammon destined for rust and the moth. Tonight, is the eve of Christ’s Mass. Tomorrow at 9:00 The Mass occurs. Tomorrow at this altar, the very reality in that stable…IS! God in the flesh then, held in The Virgin’s arms and worshipped by men brought and gathered through the Good News shared by appointed Messengers. God in the Flesh and Blood tomorrow, to be eaten and drunk by men also called and gathered by The Good News Gospelled by an appointed messenger.
Don’t fear Augsburgers. I preach to you good tidings of great joy. For unto you is born…lived, died, rose again, lives forever, and is present…a Savior Who is Christ The Lord. And THIS is The Sign unto you—you shall find The Savior wrapped in bread and wine. lying on this altar in true Body and Blood. And because you will take and eat, and take and drink, you will b filled with God and joined with the heavenly Host, praising Him and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth Peace, good will toward men!”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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