{"id":1783,"date":"2015-12-19T17:31:02","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T06:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/?p=1783"},"modified":"2015-12-19T15:34:10","modified_gmt":"2015-12-19T04:34:10","slug":"homily-points-for-fourth-sunday-of-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/homily-points-for-fourth-sunday-of-advent\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily points for fourth Sunday of Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fourth Sunday of Advent \u2013 Year C<\/span><\/h5>\n
December 20, 2015<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n

Homily:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The visit of Mary to Elizabeth is a story of grace \u2013 God\u2019s doing not our own.<\/li>\n
  • Both women are pregnant through grace.<\/li>\n
  • They are both women of great faith and trust: for Jesus is born for those who have faith in Him.<\/li>\n
  • In other words: Jesus is born for those who are open and can accept Him. He is born for those who can look beyond the dazzling shopping malls and trees.<\/li>\n
  • Our time finds this trust and faith hard to swallow.<\/li>\n
  • There are silly attempts to spark interest in Christmas through billboards that are frankly offensive.<\/li>\n
  • Like the NZ board with Mary and Joseph in Bed looking bemused: \u201cI guess that God is a hard act to follow.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • It points to the difficulty to generate a religious interest in Christmas.<\/li>\n
  • In 16th<\/sup>C England the feast of Christmas was banned; in 2015 it is all but obliterated by consumerism.<\/li>\n
  • Nevertheless, the gospel continues to announce, in Advent, that God has become one with us; incarnate of the Virgin Mary.<\/li>\n
  • Grace abounds in these stories, where God continues to reach out to humankind; in this case, with women of faith.<\/li>\n
  • And so it shall continue. For those with faith, Christmas is a bright moment. It raises our spirits and fills our hearts with joy and rejoicing.<\/li>\n
  • I read something from George Bremmmel recently, \u201cNo wonder it\u2019s a lifelong struggle to try to get our hands on the meaning of God\u2019s love for us; its depth, its fullness, its unconditional nature. Had God not revealed it in the birth of His Son, and in our hearts, we would never know and believe it.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Even when we grow cold to faith or sin, as the poem of Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven<\/em>, reminds us, God follows us.<\/li>\n
  • The Angel must be listened to! If not we risk being lost in a world of endless \u201cdead ends\u201d and ultimate anxiety.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    We already have too much violence, anxiety, depression and misbehavior. Listen to that Angel and believe. With Mary and Elizabeth we are in good company. The community of faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Fourth Sunday of Advent \u2013 Year C December 20, 2015 Homily: The visit of Mary to Elizabeth is a story of grace \u2013 God\u2019s doing not our own. Both women […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homily-notes","tag-homily"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}