The Long Winter of Exile

This is my homily that I gave at weekday Mass this morning. 

December 21, 2017

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

In today’s Mass readings, we are privileged to have the first reading from the beautiful book, the Song of Solomon. This often overlooked book fits very well into the great expectation that we have as a Church during the season of Advent and leads us directly in the joyful season of Christmas. The Song of Solomon is a love poem, a conversation in verse, between bride and bridegroom, as many of the Church Fathers saw, much like the love that Christ has for his Church.

In the passage that is selected for us to read today (SG 2:8-18), we hear that a long winter has come to an end and that new life is now budding forth from creation. “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come! For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the turtledove is heard in our land.” Such beauty and new life calls the one lover to say to other, you must come with haste and see what is happening in God’s world. Come, look for yourself, it is as glories and magnificent as the love that we share together.

We must ask the question, why was this winter so long and what has now changed that the winter is at last over? Pondering the answer, I am reminded of CS Lewis’s excellent book for both kids and adults, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I say for both kids and adults, because you can on the one hand dig very deep into the many parallels that the story has with the biblical story. Or one can easily read it as a simple novel.  In the book, the Witch uses her power over creation to keep the Land of Narnia always in winter so that the joys of Christmas would never come. Winter was the symbol of her rule and dominion over the world. Then when at last the Christ figure, Aslan, comes and through his work and the work some others who assists him along the way, the Witches power begins to weaken and Spring at last comes. Seeing the melting of the snow and blooming flowers, assures everyone that Christmas, along with its grand feasting and celebration is well on its way.

The story of our redemption is the same. Sin had God’s good creation in its power, the world was in a long winter of exile away from God’s personal presence. Then in the fullness of time God acts through his love and sends his Son into the world. As St. John tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17) This is the heart of what we prepare for in Advent, the sending forth of God Son into the world. Not as an angry God coming in judgment and condemnation, but acting out of his deep and eternal love for the creation and people that he had made. Thank God, we are not a people left to steep in the long winter of sin, the condition that man had made for himself by disobeying God, but we are set free from sin and death. Thereby released from its power and tyranny. When this happens, new life and joy comes into the world. God’s love becomes manifest through his people as a fruitful garden bringing forth new flowers. We can all cry out and say, as the bride did to the bridegroom, “The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come!” (Song of Solomon 2:13) Let us all come to meet Jesus ever a new at the manger this year. By being filled God’s love we will be able to grow into the fully mature fruit bearing plants that God desires us to be.

As we approach Christmas, let us pray that we will always remember God’s deep love for his people and his world, asking him to strength us by the power of the Holy Spirit, to show forth this same love to all those who we meet. Giving them the true gift that God has given to the world, Jesus Christ at work in you and me.