Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Christ comes today to rebuild our lives which have been hurt by sin. The Lord comes today to fix what we have destroyed by our selfishness, by our lust for money which is present in so many situations in life today. Christ has the power to rebuild your life again and he is the only one who has this power.
I was impressed by the psalm which says, “Lift up, O gates, your lintels.” The lintel is the piece of wood at the top of the door. In the old days it was a beam that supported the wall above the door, and it was part of the threshold of the house’s entrance. When these lintels are lifted up, who will enter? The one who enters will not fit because he is the King of glory, so the lintel has to be lifted up. The psalm can also mean lift up your projections, get rid of them, your schema about your life or your job or your spouse or whatever. Lift up those gates so Christ can enter. He will make all things new. He is a new wine, much better than the old one. Sometimes he can sneak into your life with a crisis or a particular event, something in your history that you forgot, but it would be easier if you were to raise your gates, your doors, open yourself to him.
I like the psalm because he does not say you have to remove the gates for the King of glory to enter. He will come in no matter what, so this is the good news for today. Why do you sit in your suffering? God is a God of compassion; he is a merciful God who cares about us. God is not over there sitting in a corner thinking you are a pain. He cares a lot about you and what you are living for, what you are suffering today. This is why he sends you people, prophets who will help you, people who announce to you the love of God.
It is up to you to take it or leave it. He has so much love for you as he had for the people of Israel. He took them out of Egypt when he saw them as slaves by sending Moses and he took them to the Promised Land. This is what the Lord wants to do with us. He wants to fill us with joy, not with silly happiness. The body will always settle for foolish happiness. A happiness that will not make us happy. At times we settle for foolish kings so that the King of glory cannot enter our life. There is already another king there and he can’t fit. Maybe this other king is our love for money and that is what reigns in our hearts. The Lord cannot do anything if he cannot get into the house because the door is very small. In that house you are happy, but it is very limited, and you have a very flat life, and you are content with it.
Some people cannot be told anything because they are very fulfilled with the life they have. They don’t want to disturb the apple cart. They are content and if you try to disturb that they will kick you out. They don’t want to be bothered by anyone or anything today or anytime. And yet today there are so many people who make huge sacrifices to have a good body. They go to the gym at 5 am or go running in the streets in the dark with a light on their head. These people are crazy. They put themselves though such sacrifices and give their body a very tough time. The men go to get more power and more muscles. They worship the cult of the body. They even fast for the body.
Today we meet Simeon in the gospel and it say that he was a just man. He was a holy man who could hear the Lord and was prompted by the Holy Spirit to go to the temple and there he would see the Messiah. The word Simeon in Hebrew has the same root as the word that means ‘listen’. The Shema is the greatest commandment: Listen, you will love the Lord your God, with all your heart and all your strength and with all your mind, but the first word is Shema or listen. Simeon is a man who listens; he listens to the Lord and therefore he is just. And this is why he meets the Messiah. He lets him come into his temple; he lifts the gate; he is has an open and good disposition. So, what can you or I do to meet the Messiah? Nothing, only listen to the Word, to the preaching; this will transform your life. This is what will make you lift up the lintel of your house so the King of glory can enter.
Fireflies have their own light, and you can see them at night. We just heard the gospel this week that says a Christian puts his light on the table, not under it or under the bed or in a box. But this does not mean he is saying I am wonderful and full of light. A Christian is one who is called to enlighten others, to bring light to a dark world, to bring light to your spouse who never goes to church. But this is your mission as a Christian to bring light to him, to brighten his day. The Lord called you not for your own salvation but to be a light for others. To do so you need the light of Christ.
A Christian is like the moon which is very dark and full of craters and sand and rocks but at times it is the greatest body that shines at night. Where does it get that light? It is the light of the sun. You and I receive the light of the Son also, who is Christ. We are the moon that has no light of its own. We are nothing but desert and darkness and sin. We are poor but a Christian knows that even with his sins he can reflect the light of the love of Christ in the midst of this dark world.
This light is the love of Christ you can receive it, and you can give it to others. There is no other light and this is done with humility because a Christian is not proud. If others are proud, they are not Christians. It is necessary to have humility. If you are humble today, then you can recognize that you are a sinner. When you are humble you realize at home it is not always your wife’s fault. She is not always the one to blame. At work when you recognize you have made a mess of things that is humility and then you can ask for forgiveness. May the Lord be our light today.