Weekly HOMILY for December 11, 2011: 3rd Advent -- "O Come, O Come, Emmanual"

3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
December 11, 2011
Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC

“O Come O Come Emmanual”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


THE HYMN

I think we would agree that the most familiar of all our Advent hymns is O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

This beautiful, classic hymn dates back to the year 800. It contains words and verses like these:

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.

“To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. O Come, O Rod of Jesse’s stem, From every foe deliver them.

“That trust your mighty power to save, And give them vic’try o’er the grave. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”


A SAVIOR, FROM WHAT?

At its heart, this hymn powerfully and poetically expresses our yearning and desire for a savior and salvation.

It is the Advent hymn because this season is about a savior and salvation. But that immediately raises an important question for us.

Do you and I, as people who tend to be rather independent and self-sufficient, do we honestly believe we need to be saved? Do we really believe we need a savior?

Or, to put it differently, from what precisely do we need to be saved? These are important questions of faith especially during this Advent Season.

Paul Tillich, the great Lutheran theologian, has a great insight into why we need a savior and what we need to be saved from. He says that today we need a savior as much as people did in the time of Isaiah and before the coming of Jesus.

And the need for a savior continues because we continue to labor under three fundamental anxieties: anxiety (1) About death, (2) About meaning, and (3) About guilt.

These three anxieties exist right in the heart and core of our humanity; they seem to be written into our DNA.


FROM ANXIETY ABOUT DEATH

First, let us hear a word about the fundamental anxiety about death.

We know that eventually we will die, and often we shy away from thinking about it. We start showing some gray, and probably aren’t too pleased.

We may find ourselves getting tired and having less energy, and we try to avoid admitting it.

We resist facing up to these things because they remind us if only subconsciously of death.


FROM ANXIETY ABOUT MEANING

Then we have a fundamental anxiety about meaning – about the meaning of life.

This anxiety may show itself in our drive for affirmation or our need to be right. It may show itself in wondering why we even do our routines of personal care, household chores, or work or business. It’s all so much of the same over and over and over.

We may worry that we are missing something in life.

We may have a deep, gnawing feeling that our basic life choices have left us incomplete and that there must be more to life.


FROM ANXIETY ABOUT GUILT

Finally, we have a fundamental anxiety about guilt.

We sense the evil in the world and some darkness within ourselves. We sense that we have something to do with the lack of goodness.

We know also that sometimes we do wrong in spite of our good intentions. We know we try hard and may do better, but we’re never completely good.


SALVATION FROM THESE THREE ANXIETIES

Given this human condition, Advent may be the best time of year.

➢ It invites us to link a physical pain or limitation to our anxiety over death.
➢ It invites us to link a nagging worry or even our desire for more and more of something to our anxiety over meaning.
➢ Advent invites us to link our gut feeling that the world is out of kilter or that there is something in disarray in our own lives to our anxiety over guilt.

So considering our human condition with these fundamental anxieties, Advent may be the best season of all.

When we allow Advent to lead us to these anxieties, it is then we discover our need for a savior.

We need a savior to transform death to resurrection, and so we sing: “Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”

We need a savior to give fundamental meaning to our lives, and so we sing: “To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go.”

And we need a savior to forgive us when we are caught in guilt, and so we sing: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.”

Advent puts us in touch with our need of a Savior and leads us to find this need fulfilled in Jesus.