12/24/2014 – December 24th mass of the day – Luke 1:67-79

      We are just hours away from our Christmas eve vigil mass. Today, we hear the canticle of Zachariah.  Everyday, we priests pray morning prayer and evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours.  The Canticle of Zachariah is prayed or sung during morning prayer and the Magnificat of Mary is prayed during evening prayer.  Simply put, we could say that this Gospel reading we hear today is Zechariah’s prophetic exhortation about the greatness of God in sending his son, John the Baptist, as the forerunner to pave the way for the coming of Christ.  Like the Magnificat, there is so much richness and meaning contained in this Canticle.  If we recall in earlier readings we’ve heard this week, Zechariah learned the hard way about trusting God and responding to his call.  Zechariah lost the power of speech when he did not believe the Angel’s message, that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son in her old age. Zechariah learned his lesson, as we can tell from the words of this canticle.  What struck me when I read through the Canticle in preparing my homily is this: that Zechariah prophesied that his son John the Baptist would give God’s people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.  God forgives us our sins – he gives us through his grace this freely given gift.  During this time of Advent, we were called to feel hope and joy at the coming of our Lord, we were called to renew our lives of faith and to prepare a path for him.  We want God to forgive us our sins – that is something all Christians desire in their lives.  Yet, how hard is it still for us to forgive, even though we so desire for God to forgive us in our lives of faith.  Perhaps that is something that weighs on our hearts at the close of this Advent season: the need to forgive someone, the need to be forgiven, or the need to reconcile a broken relationship in our lives.  As we prepare for the coming of the Lord in our Christmas Eve in just a few hours, let us remember the constant call we have for renewal and conversion in our lives of faith.  The lessons and messages we hear during the Advent season call out to us always.