Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Decem­ber 24, 2008

We have spent Advent prepar­ing for tonight and tomor­row – and the future hope that Christ’s pres­ence means.

I reflect on select­ed phras­es of today’s Gospel – the themes of being set free, of being shown mer­cy, of the con­tin­ued covenant of our God, of the pow­er of for­give­ness, and, of a future of peace. There are four times in this Gospel that we are remind­ed that we “are set free” and that we will be “saved from our ene­mies.” I reflect on who these ene­mies are or might be – they could be oth­er humans, they could be our cho­sen behav­iors, they could be sys­temic struc­tures, they could be events, etc. In Decem­ber 2008, I think the read­er could reflect dif­fer­ent­ly on this Gospel – depen­dent on one’s geog­ra­phy. For exam­ple, the phrase “free to wor­ship him with­out fear” would be inter­pret­ed dif­fer­ent­ly from a Chris­t­ian liv­ing in the state of Nebras­ka in the U.S. ver­sus a Chris­t­ian liv­ing in the state of Oris­sa, India. For the Nebraskan, that phrase might not have any real mean­ing; for the Chris­t­ian Indi­an, it could mean life and death.

I fur­ther reflect on the who and what are the ene­mies in my life. It might not nec­es­sar­i­ly be peo­ple. It might be the behav­iors I choose – that I need to be set free from. It might be soci­etal sys­temic struc­tures that I need to act to change.

Embed­ded in this Gospel is the Lord’s covenant – that He will be with us “all the days of our life.” And, that this faith­ful­ness includes for­give­ness, mer­cy, com­pas­sion, and a will “to guide our feet into the way of peace.”