Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent! During this Advent season our parish is focusing on the kerygma (proclamation) of the Gospel. Each week in the homily a different component of the kerygma is presented. I was privileged to write a brief article each week for the parish bulletin. I share the fourth and final installment here with you.
Created. Captured. Rescued. Response. These are the four points of the kerygma or proclamation of the gospel that we have focused on during Advent. God created us in love. We are captured by sin. Jesus Christ rescued us through his Passion (suffering, death, and resurrection). We are called to respond in love to this great salvation.
But how do we respond? At Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, in line with the kerygma, we believe that we exist to “glorify God and make disciples.” By that we seek to bring joy to the heart of our God and for that joy to flow out to those around us.
We also believe that we are called to “love God and love our neighbor.” We cannot just hope to love God. When I married my wife, I said I would love her until death parts us. Just saying “I love you” daily to check it off a list won’t mean much if I don’t also practice loving her in tangible ways. We love God by spending time with Him in prayer, by worshiping Him in the Mass, by regularly confessing our sin, and by making sacrifices to make sure He is God and we are not.
We also love our neighbor, not only in words, but in our deeds. As our relationship with God grows and deepens, we are able to be patient, flexible and have a winsome spirit (chispa) that will draw others to Christ.
The Good Samaritan, 1890 by Vincent van Gogh
Jesus was once asked by an expert in the law what must be done to inherit eternal life. He answered his own question with, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirmed his answer and told him to do just that. Wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus who was his neighbor. Jesus then told one of the most famous stories in the Gospels of the Good Samaritan (read it in Luke 10:25–37).
So our response to the Gospel is to love God, receive His life through the work of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and then share that same love patiently, winningly and in a way that will meet our neighbors right where they are. Jesus, our Good Samaritan, calls us to follow in his steps.