Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the day before the joyful Christmas Day and the beginning of the Christmas season and time which we have been preparing for these past few weeks during this time of Advent. On this day we remember again all that God has promised us and which He has Himself fulfilled by sending unto us His Son, Who is the Saviour of the whole world, the One to bring all of us mankind back to our loving God and Father. His coming into this world has restored the hope to all of us and brought to us the assurance that we are never alone in our journey of life and that we will always have the Lord and His love by our side, providing for us and guiding us in this path, because He is with us, Emmanuel, God Who is present in our midst.

In this day’s first reading, we heard from the Book of the prophet Samuel in which the interactions between the prophet Nathan and King David of Israel was recounted to us, when David had been secure in his kingdom and rule, and wanted to build a House and Temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, as he thought that he has been dwelling in an elegant and lavish house befitting a King, the palace that he had built for himself, and yet, the Lord and the Ark of the Covenant which is the symbol of His dwelling among His people was still in the Holy Tent ever since the time the Lord and His people travelled from the land of Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan. David thought that it was inappropriate that he and his descendants, the Kings of Israel would live in a house of stone and gold, while the Lord still dwelled in the Tent, and that was why he came up with the plan to build a House for God.

But the Lord spoke to David through the prophet Nathan and told him everything that would come to happen, and also about his plan on building the House and Temple for the dwelling place of God among His people. God told David that it would not be him to build a House and Temple for His sake, but that it would be a son of his that would do so instead. This son was to be Solomon, the one who would succeed David as King of Israel, and the one who would be known as the one who established the great and marvellous House of God, named after him as Solomon’s Temple or the Temple of Solomon. But the one who initially planned for it, and who also eventually set aside the large quantity of resources for the building of this Temple was truly King David, Solomon’s father.

More importantly, as we heard the words of the Lord to King David, we heard the word of prophecy from the Lord spoken to His people and to His servant David, reassuring that the House of David would be forever secure in their rule over the Kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of God’s people. This was alluded not only in the rule of the heir of David, King Solomon, whom the Lord would assure and strengthen in time to come, but was also an allusion and prophecy of the Eternal and True King, the Heir and Son of David in the distant future, that is none other than Jesus Christ Himself, Who would come to dwell among us, the Son of God incarnate, Who would therefore come to walk among us, manifesting God’s love for all, and at the same time, sitting on the Throne of David, His forefather, fulfilling everything that had been promised by God to His people.

Then, from our Gospel passage this day, we heard of the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist in which he wrote of the song which Zechariah, the father of St. John the Baptist sang in thanksgiving to God, when he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, giving thanks to God for all the great and wonderful things that He has done for all of His people, especially all those who have suffered and were downtrodden, without hope and were facing challenges and difficulties in their lives. At that time, his son, St. John the Baptist had just been born after a truly miraculous conception and pregnancy that by all reasonable possibilities and human wisdom is something that was truly impossible and yet, it happened because God made it happen.

Despite Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife being already very old and way beyond childbearing age, but Elizabeth managed to conceived a child by the will and grace of God. And this son who was born to Elizabeth became a sign for all of the people of God, the revelation of the hope, light, truth and Good News which God has presented to us. St. John the Baptist is the Herald of the Messiah, the one whom had been sent to prepare the path for the coming of the Lord, and his coming into our midst is the revelation of the salvation that has come from God. Zechariah gave thanks to God for all that He has done for His people, for all the love which He has generously provided to us despite our many transgressions, sins and rebellions against Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are all about to celebrate the great joy and happiness in Christmas, let us all therefore make good use of whatever time left to us before this celebration to remind ourselves that our Christmas joy and festivities, everything that we have been preparing for this Advent are all ultimately about the Lord and His salvation, all the love which He has presented and shown to us most generously, the mercy and forgiveness that He has given us so that we may have the sure path to eternal life and Heaven, bringing us down this path of mercy and compassion, leading us all to the light of God’s salvation. This Christmas is truly a celebration of God’s love for us and hence, He should always be at the centre and be the focus of all that we celebrate for. We should not be easily distracted by all the glamour, pleasures, excesses of the things that the secular celebrations of Christmas present to us.

Let us therefore enter into the Christmas season being reminded of God’s assurance and love, His constant faithfulness and commitment to the Covenant which He has made with each and every one of us. Let us all continue to grow in our faith and love towards Him, and in all of our Christmas joy and festivities, let us also remember our brothers and sisters around us, especially all those who are not able to rejoice in the manner that we do, and share with them the comforts of God’s love and joy, and bless them with our presence, care and love, to the best of our abilities. May our Christmas season and time, our celebrations and rejoicing be truly fruitful and beneficial in our ever closer and growing relationship with God, the One Whose coming into our midst is the true reason for our rejoicing. Amen.