(2015. 12. 20 대림 4주일 미사)
장궤틀 축성미사를 위하여 우리 해밀턴 본당을 방문해 주신 Crosby 주교님의 강론을 옮겨 적습니다.
Four Sunday of Advent (Year C)
St. Peter Yu Parish Hamilton
God has a plan. that is what we learn from today's readings. God has a big plan - for the world,
for a people; and God has a plan for each one of us. We know that God;s plan for us is happiness
first of all: happiness in this life, and the fullness of happiness with him in the next.
After the visit by the angel Gabriel, Mary understood God's plan for her. She was to conceive and bear a Son who would be called Emmanuel, and who would set his people free. Mary knew that she had a
part in that plan, and she was ready to do it. Let it be done to me according to your world, she said to
the angel.
Now that she knew her purpose she was filled with a new energy, a new stamina, a new strength.
She set out and went with haste. People who have a purpose in life - a goal - set out with haste to
accomplish it.
And Mary was carrying Jesus. In a sense, she was bringing Jesus for his first meeting with John the
Baptist - who, we are told, jumped in the womb of Elizabeth in the presence of the Load.
We too have a purpose. God chooses us to carrying on the good work of Jesus Christ. And his
mission, now ours, is described very simply: to save the world. We do that, by doing what is good,
by acts of kindness and generosity, by acts of personal sacrifice for the benefit of the other.
In a sense, that is what we are celebrating today: and act of kindness from the Vietnamese community in the Diocese, toward the Korean community. And it is what we celebrate at Christmas, the ultimate
gift from God, the gift of his Son, the gift if a Messiah, Jesus Christ, who comes precisely to set us
free - and to explain to us God's purpose for us.
When I celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation, I remind the people I confirm that the anointing with
Sacred Chrism, is the sign that God chooses them to do what Jesus did; that God makes them like
Christ who is "THE Chosen One"! Now WE are chosen ones - we have a mission, we have a purpose.
We gather at the altar today, to thank God for the purpose he gave to the Blessed Virgin Mary - for the purpose he gives to the Church - and for the purpose he gives to each one of us!
