In Advent,
it is customary
to think on
the Four Last Things,
Death, Judgment,
Hell and Heaven.
We do so
in preparation
for a great mystery:
Word made Flesh
God made Man
Divine made Human.
A seemingly impossible
happening.
The immortal
becomes mortal.
Why?
Why not just become
an immortal human being?
Why bother to die?
[PAUSE]
We know that
sin and death are
two sides of the same coin.
We sin because we die
and we die because we sin
as St Paul tells the Romans.
But Jesus doesn't sin.
So why does He die?
The Problem is
that we don't necessarily die
because we sin.
Look at the Holy Innocents
who die
before they even commit
a sinful act.
They die
because of someone else's sin
- Herod's murderous paranoia.
Human beings die
because of sin
and Our Lord
chooses not to be an exception
to this.
He embraces full humanity,
empties Himself
even of immortality
relying on the grace of His Father
to be fully human
and live the human life.
And that means
openness to death.
But He need not have died.
It is possible that He didn't have to.
The problem is
that we killed Him.
[PAUSE]
Of course,
it is the perfidious
rulers of the temple
and Jewish religious leaders
who are directly responsible
for Jesus' Death.
They use the crowds
as an instrument
in their cry of "Crucify!"
and thus the crowd sins
through ignorance and weakness.
But God knows.
God sees all this
in His Eternity.
And,
knowing that Jesus dies,
God uses that death
as a means of life.
This is the genius
of Almighty God
to use the Death of His Son,
whom the Pharisees
chose to murder
freely and without coercion,
to undo the power
of sin and death
and give life to all
who would seek
to live in Him.
[PAUSE]
In Adam,
we are separated from God
and at the mercy of a world
corrupted by sin
and, in our weakness,
we die.
Look at the news
and see the connection
between sin and death.
Then look to Christmas Day
and see God Incarnate
born to end sin and death
by making death
a gateway to Eternal Life
in Him.
The world may indeed
go to Hell in a handcart
as the saying goes,
but that is not the fate
of the Christian.
While we may
be devastated by
the levels of sin, death,
depravity and decay around us,
we can still look into the manger
just as we have done for
two thousand years
and see the same hope
that sin and death will pass away
because the Word of God
will never pass away.
The Incarnation does not end in Death:
it ends in our life into Eternity.
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