Happy Gaudéte 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 third installment here with you.
TV Announcer: “The second largest city in Armenia is in ruins. We saw houses turned into heaps of metal and concrete. Schools and kindergartens turned into heaps of rubble.”
“In 1988 there was a 6.8 earthquake in Armenia. Thirty thousand people died in four minutes. A bunch of parents ran to their kids’ school that had completely collapsed. They just started mourning outside the school that their kids were dead, except one dad. He ran up to the rubble at school and started ripping one brick off after another. At first some people were helping them out, but hour after hour their hopes were diminished. Nobody could possibly be alive in there. After a while they started mocking him. He just kept going and going. Thirty-eight hours later, by himself with his bloody hands, he lifted one last brick, threw it aside, and there was his son with his friends. And his son's immediate reply was “I knew you'd come dad!” This is how our heavenly Father loves us then we're covering in the rubble of sin. With the bloody hands of Jesus Christ he saved us. He saved you.” (The Search)
Last summer as we heard this story from the lips of Chris Stefanick during “The Search,” Tears welled up in our eyes and our throats constricted with emotion. We love a great story of rescue. Yet we don’t have to watch a movie, read a book, or hear of some amazing feat secondhand. We can live it firsthand.
We were created in love. We were captured by sin. But God. Those are two very powerful words. But God so loved us, even when we were captured by sin and in complete rebellion to the goodness of his creation, he sent his Son Jesus to rescue us.
There is a beautiful verse in the first chapter of the Gospel of John that explains God’s intention in this rescue. “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (verse 12). Jesus extends his bloody hand to us, to rescue us. There is no better respond than to say “I knew you would come!”
(Photo Credit: © Peter Turnley/CORBIS)