Jesus, The Lord of History

From Isaiah 64, “There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you, for you have hidden your face from us – and have delivered us unto our guilt.” –  “You have hidden your face from us” – Many people feel that way today, where is the Lord – why so much chaos – why do things seem so out of control – in so many ways evil seems to dominating – in that situation, we begin the time of Advent – it has a special meaning for us at this point in our history – Advent is a special time, because it looks way back to the ancient prophecies of Israel – on the other hand it looks to the end of our history – to the goal of our history – immense leap from past, present and future of human history – one of the things that’s a special characteristic of Christianity is it’s not like a lot of religions that try to deal with nature, or primitive religions or a moral code, set of commandments or philosophy or a man-made mythology, and myths about how things happen in a faraway time – Christianity is about real things that happen, historical events – about God acting in this messy, difficult world that we’re living in – to try to understand how God works through history ( there’s a lot of ancient history of lives of people we don’t know anything about, because there are no written records) so the Lord in the Bible, it’s like He’s condensed to the critical parts of history, to make it easier for us to understand – so God created a beautiful world, and then man sinned – so there’s a long war breaking out, with so many terrible consequences we’re involved in right now – then God begins a preparation, announcing a savior – the Bible says some people were faithful – there came a time when the prophesies went silent – for centuries there were no prophesies, until one day John the Baptist began to proclaim the time had come – In passage from Isaiah 64 today says, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down”- rip open the heavens – man had experienced since sin, how far away God was, it was impossible to know Him – all these different kinds of religions trying to make contact with Him – through Jesus Christ, God rips open the heavens and comes down – He doesn’t just come down, He becomes one of us – instead of a God who is demanding all kinds of human sacrifices, He sacrifices Himself for us – in His death and resurrection, He accomplishes so many promises, centuries old promises – shows He is a powerful and faithful God – main point is that as God, Jesus Christ is the Lord of history – St. John Paul said, “Jesus Christ is the center of the universe and of history” – Second Vatican Council said, ”Christ is the Lord and goal of human history.” – to have someone who is in control, and that is Jesus Christ – Lord and goal of human history – He is the focal point of the longings of history and civilization, the center of human race – the joy of every heart, and fulfillment of all its yearnings – sin takes control of this world, then there is a long preparation, then there is a coming of God in the little town of Bethlehem, so Jesus Christ has come to lead us in this great battle of reconquest of our world to the Lord –  God is present even if things seem out of control – He reveals to us that God is the Lord of history – and that He is leading history towards a goal – leading to the triumph of His kingdom – God is leading all of humanity towards that great gathering, that great reunion in His kingdom – so He is the Lord of world history and of our personal history – He respects our freedom, so each one of us is free to cooperate or not – it’s not easy to believe Jesus is the Lord of history – seems often times things are dominated by evil, even in the Church –  in human elements of the Church, evil seems to be strong – trust in the Lord – it’s important that we can help others believe in the midst of the struggle that Jesus Christ is the Lord of history – so as we begin Advent, as our country and our Church go through so many struggles, the Lord, with our Blessed Mother we can make a new act of faith, a new act of trust that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my history, of all history.  We pray, Jesus, we trust in You.