Weekly HOMILY for December 14,2000: Need for a Savior

3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
December 14, 2008

Need for a Savior
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


O Come, O Come Emmanuel

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

Every Advent we sing this beautiful hymn that dates all the way back to the year 800. We sing words and verses like these.

“Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight. To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go.”

And again, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.” All of these expressions are so rich in what they convey about God and us.


A Savior? Is So, from What?

At its heart, this hymn is about the need of a savior.

It is the Advent hymn because this season is about a savior and salvation. But, I think we must ask an important question.

Do you and I, as people who tend to be rather independent and self-sufficient, do we right now honestly believe we need to be saved? (1) Do we really believe we need a savior?

(2) And from what do we think we need to be saved?

These are important questions of faith for us especially during this Advent Season.

A Lutheran theologian named Paul Tillich has what I think is a great insight into why we need a savior and what we need to be saved from.

Tillich says that we human beings today, twenty centuries after the birth of Jesus, still need a savior because we labor under three fundamental anxieties.

We are anxious (1) About death, (2) About meaning, and (3) About guilt.


From Anxiety about Death

First, we have a fundamental anxiety about death.

Each of us knows that eventually we will die and we don’t like thinking about death. A friend dies we think, “Me too some day.” A parent died we think, “My generation is next in line.”

We start showing some gray, and we aren’t too pleased.

We may find ourselves getting tired quicker or having less energy or motivation to do things, and we avoid admitting it.

We do not like to face up to these realities because they remind us, if only subconsciously, of our own death one day.


From Anxiety about Meaning

And 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 our questioning what is underneath our routines of household chores and work and everything else.

We may worry that we are missing something in life.

We may even 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

And finally, as if that were not enough anxiety to handle, we have a fundamental anxiety about guilt.

We sense that there is evil in the world and even some bad streaks of evil in ourselves. We sense that we have something to do with the lack of goodness.

We know that sometimes we do wrong when our emotions are running hot in spite of all our good intentions.

And no matter how hard we try, we may do better, but we are never completely good.


Salvation from These Anxieties

What I would suggest is that given this human condition, perhaps Advent can be the best time of the year for us.

For Advent invites us:
(1) To link a physical pain to our anxiety over death, or
(2) To link a nagging worry to our anxiety over meaning, or
(3) To link an uneasy conscience to our anxiety over guilt.

When we allow Advent to lead us to these anxieties, we may indeed 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 love and forgive us when we are caught in guilt, and so we sing: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.”


Conclusion

This is both the proclamation and the invitation of Advent: to be in touch with our need of a Savior, and to find this need fulfilled in Jesus!