First Sunday of Advent
THE AWARENESS OF THE PRESENCE
OF CHRIST
Matthew 1:23
I have been away from the Philippines
for almost four years now. I remember that during the first few months here,
I tried to get in touch and communicate with friends back home. But as the months
and years passed, calls and Emails gradually discontinued. I lost contact with
most of them. I try to reason to myself by making the usual excuses about being
“busy.” But I know deep inside, that I am guilty of neglect and unconcern.
The Christian religion is
unique in the sense that we believe in a personal relationship with God. So personal
is this relationship that we believe that Jesus Christ, even though not visible, is always present in our midst. This belief is best reflected in a line from a hymn entitled: “He lives.” A line says: “He walks with me and talks with me…”
Christians believe that God is not out there. We believe that He is present
every moment, aware of our every thought, listens to every word, sees every act, and understands every feeling that we have. Jesus said in Matthew 18:20: “For where
two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." He also promised
in Matthew 28:20: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The Christian life requires a
constant awareness that Jesus Christ is here, even though his presence is invisible. Yet
even if we accept this truth of faith, the knowledge of Christ's presence is easily ignored. Our
life’s concerns like; the things that we can see, hear, and feel, can easily numb our awareness of his nearness. Other values can easily begin to dominate our life.
This is the same shortcoming we have for the friends and loved ones who used to be so close but now we have lost contact.
When the same thing happens in our relationship with God, forgetfulness sets
in and we slowly lose our awareness of the presence of Christ. It takes a certain
amount of effort to maintain a friendship. Being near helps, but it is not enough. You realize this when you reflect on how many people and friends you know that are
just less than a few kilometers away but you have never communicated for some time. Does
absence really make us miss each other more? I don’t think so, or at least
not for very long. In reality, absence weakens our attachment to each other,
until finally, it fades away. This, I believe is also true with our relationship
with Christ. Even though the presence of Christ is real, He could be absent from
our minds and hearts. How do we keep our awareness of His presence?
Today let us discuss the
first: being aware of His presence through PRAYER. Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Prayer is an act, but how can you be devoted to doing an act when there is no meaning to it? How do you know that your prayer is not motivated by a blind devotion that Jesus warned against in Matthew
6:7? (“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think
they will be heard because of their many words.”) Friendship with Christ
is the same as loving Christ. And your love for someone is shown by your desire
to reach out and communicate with that person. So it is with the love of Christ. We believe that He stands in our midst always wanting to help us. That’s right! Jesus doesn’t stand beside you to
supervise and try to catch you with some wrong doing. No, Jesus stands beside
us because He wants us to be aware that He is near and always there for our needs. Hebrews
4:16 says: “Let us then approach the
throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Unbelievers have difficulty relating Christmas with Jesus Christ. Year after year, millions of people around the world celebrate a “Christless” Christmas. People are not concerned about the reason; they only want to celebrate the season. How about you, what is your reason?
Christ is real and He stands in
our midst. Does anybody want to talk to Him?
Or do we continue to ignore Him?
