He comes by the Holy Spirit.
He comes by the Sacraments.
He comes by the Word of God.
He comes by holy people as they rub off on us.
He comes by circumstances – which links to a second question:
Why does Jesus come into our lives?
He comes to bring us into his life, death and resurrection – and here’s the rub.
Look, as the Church invites us to do so today, at his Mother. She was first to welcome Jesus into her life – and where did it lead her? She was led into hardship, led to a shaming pregnancy and a Cross of sorrows before taking the shine of glory.
I want Jesus in my life. I want the shine of glory – but, if I am honest, I don’t want hardships!
This is where Jesus sorts us out because it's by endurance of hardship that salvation is forged.
The great Christian writers speak of the need to gratefully accept most of what comes our way, including suffering and hardship.
Sharing life with Jesus means self-sacrifice.
Mary gives us the clue. I am the Lord's servant, she says in today’s Gospel, let it be for me according to the Lord's will and not my own.
Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, the sacraments and scripture.
He also gives us hardships but we have to decide whether to endure them or quit.
In that decision we bring Jesus closer or we push him further away.
Over the last four months it’s been a privilege to come alongside St Bart’s as part of the team of priests serving our pastoral vacancy. The lay leadership here is impressive in its fortitude.
As someone privileged to minister to the scores who enter our doors day by day I engage with folk enduring hardships directly or alongside a loved one. In listening to and talking with them I’m many a time left feeling I’m a fair weather Christian!
The means by which we grow in holiness aren’t necessarily sermons or books or forms of prayer, the right sort of retreat or spiritual guide.
The means of our sanctification, of our cleansing from sin, healing from hurt and so on lies in the day to day circumstances of our life as we welcome them as the Lord’s gift.
As we read in Psalm 112:6,7 the righteous will not be overthrown by evil circumstances...he does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen. For he is settled in his mind that the Lord will take care of him.
The spiritual writer De Caussade in his book Self-abandonment to Divine Providence emphasises how our welcoming of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament Sunday by Sunday focuses the welcoming of the Lord in every circumstance that comes our way.
Jesus is as ready to meet us in the circumstances of our life as he is to meet us in the Sacrament of Bread and Wine.
To be glad deep down in your heart in every situation is a grace given by God, a grace we have to seek - just as Mary sought divine help to brave her expressed fear: How can this be?
If we aren't glad at heart it may be because we’re not fully submitted to God’s will revealed in the circumstances of our life. This leads me into a reminder. By a long standing tradition here at St Bart’s priests make themselves available for confession before the Feast of Christmas. You have a last chance to catch one of us over coffee if you desire to welcome from Our Lord the grace of absolution before Christmas Communion.
Jesus comes into our lives – by the Spirit, Sacrament, Scripture or by circumstances - to bring us into his own life, death and resurrection.
He is ready to help us face discomfort so that his resurrection life may grow in us by the Spirit and our old proud and sinful nature is further humiliated and put down.
As we prepare for Christmas may we have our spiritual ears open to hear God speaking into our lives so that we might decrease in self orientation and gain within us the love of Christ that will never fail.
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