FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT REFLECTION

Pope Innocent VI was bishop of Rome in the mid-decades of the 14th Century. He was a good hymnologist as well. He authored the beautiful but very brief eucharistic hymn known by its Latin title – "Ave Verum Corpus". It was later put to music by the incomparable Mozart. It goes as follows:

Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria virgine,
Vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine,
Cujus latus perforatum vero fluxit sanguine,
Esto nobis praegustatum mortis in examine.
O clemens, o pie,
O dulcis Jesu, fili Mariae.

Hail true body that was born of Mary, the
Virgin, that truly suffered and was offered in
sacrifice on the cross for man and that gave
forth true blood from its pierced side. Be to us
a foretaste of heaven when we are in death’s
agony, kind, loving and gentle Jesus, son of Mary.

The hymn celebrates the truth of things about our Catholic faith, the realities of faith we celebrate throughout the liturgical year. The first line celebrates the reality of the mystery of the Incarnation – "Hail true Body born of the Virgin Mary". The second line celebrates the mystery of the cross – "Hail true Body, truly suffered, sacrificed on the cross for mankind”. The third line continues the theme of the Passion – “Hail true Body whose pierced side flowed with water and blood”. The fourth and final line directly reflects the Eucharist – “Let it be for us a foretaste of heaven when we are in death’s agony”. Jesus whom we call the Christ is no mythical figure. Neither is his heavenly Father who mysteriously identified himself to the prophet Moses in the words "I AM". Neither is his earthly mother who said to Gabriel, "I am the handmaid of the Lord." The Lord Jesus is for real – real in his birth, real in his dying and rising, real in the Eucharist we receive, foreshadowing God’s gift of eternal life. The "Ave Verum Corpus" celebrates these realities.

For an Advent meditation, I would call your attention to the prayer that opened our liturgy on the Fourth Sunday of Advent. We said to God our Father – "Fill our hearts with your love, and as you revealed to us the coming of your Son as man, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his resurrection". Any welcoming of the Lord at Christmas carries with it the acceptance of Christ’s cross.

This prayer like the Gospels themselves should be read backwards, that is, we start with the paschal mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection, then move backwards to the Lord’s public ministry and his birth at Christmas time. We should note our second reading for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul begins his Letter with these words: “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” This passage from St. Paul raises an interesting question. Our Jewish brothers and sisters for centuries have read the ancient prophets. The Church from its very beginning has continued to read the ancient prophets. Our Jewish brothers and sisters do not recognize Jesus in the ancient prophets. We, the Church, recognize Jesus in the writing of the prophets. Jesus himself knew the prophets well; he identified himself as descending from Adam, Abraham and David. He identified himself with the suffering servant as pictured in the prophecy of Isaiah. Why is it that there is what we could call the failure of our Jewish brothers and sisters to find the Lord Jesus in the prophets? Pope Benedict had a wonderful passage in this regard. He writes: “The starting point for Christology in the New Testament – that is, the study of the story of Jesus – is the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The resurrection is God’s way of publicly taking the side of Jesus in the trials organized by the Jews and Gentiles against him. Through the resurrection, God’s defense of Jesus confirms first of all the interpretation of the Old Testament which the Lord Jesus had given to his disciples and confirmed as well Jesus’ claim to divinity.” This is why some disciples came to Jesus from John and asked the question – “Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?” We read the Gospels backwards starting with the resurrection. That is why in our prayer life in Advent we read backwards the prayer we have just cited which began our liturgy for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. We begin with the resurrection. This highlights the law of the cross. The law of the cross is expressed by Jesus in his public ministry of love and forgiveness and thus leads to the feast of Christmas which we are preparing to celebrate. This confirms once again what we have already said – any invitation of the Lord at Christmas carries with it the acceptance of the cross.

Let us reflect for a moment on what we can call the law of the cross. What does this mean? In shorthand, it goes something like this – All of human history, everybody’s human history, is a story of progress and decline. Because of sin, decline, disorder, evil become the conquerors. Justice comes along to try to right the wrongs, but the enmities, the rivalries, the hostilities that come from sin continue to conqueror. Just look at the front pages of our newspapers. Better still, look in the mirror and try to examine the human heart. Where justice fails, only love can prevail, only love can wipe the slate clean of sin. This is what we mean by the law of the cross. Through Christ’s life, death and resurrection, God wipes the slate clean, for Christ is the true Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. In other words, God has introduced into human history a process of reversal. The consequences of our sins become the very means of our salvation. The prime instance is Jesus. By willingly accepting the consequences of our sins, though sinless himself, he passed through suffering and death, and God’s power at work in Jesus made this the passageway to resurrection and life. St. Paul puts it this way – God showed his love for us in this that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The law of the cross works something like this – Two persons have a quarrel. As long as each party returns evil for evil, the quarrel escalates, the situation worsens, no fresh start is possible. Only a process of reversal will bring peace. Only when one party is willing to love one’s enemies and to pray for one’s persecutors, only then will the decline of evil be checked, only then will redemption be effected, only then will our own human history make progress towards God’s kingdom.

This is what happened in Jesus. This is what he wills to effect in us. This is what Christmas is all about. We cooperate with God’s redeeming power by returning good for evil, thus transforming the evil that surrounds us into the cross through which alone we are saved. This was a scandal to some of the Jews of Jesus’ time. This was all folly to the Greeks. To those who believed, Jew or Greek, this was the power of God and the wisdom of God. The law of the cross is still folly for so many in our day. The philosopher Nietzsche would reject Christian humility and self-giving love as the religion of slaves who are really envious of the rich and the powerful. Karl Marx would reject Christian patience and the doctrine of the cross as ideological invention to facilitate the enriching of the rich and the enslaving of the poor who are thus deceived by Christian teaching and drugged by the empty hope of abundant life beyond the grave.
The feast of Christmas makes an affirmation and asks a question. The affirmation is this – Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. In other words, God out of love wipes our slates clean. The question is this – Are we willing to do the same for our brothers and sisters? Only those who understand the law of the cross can truly say – Merry Christmas.

(Readers who are familiar with the wonderful work of Bernard Lonergan, who was my mentor in graduate school, will recognize what has been said above about the Law of the Cross.)