4 Advent, Year B, December 24
2 Sam. 7:1-11, 16
Cant. 3 or 15 or Ps. 89:1-4, 19-26
Rom. 16:25-27 • Luke 1:26-28
The desire, however pious, to construct or renovate an edifice to the glory of God carries a high risk of failure. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build labor in vain” (Ps. 127:1). Has the Lord commanded this thing? Is the Lord, who is beyond need, somehow in need of buildings made with human hands? The heavens declare the glory of God — the heavens, the earth, and everything under the earth, so, yes, God is revealed though not contained by things. Thus, a building may be a sacramental sign, but never more than a sign pointing to an unseen mystery, the abyss of what we barely know (though God is known by love).
King David wants to build a house for the Lord, but is thwarted at the outset. In time, of course, under King Solomon, a temple is constructed, but the children of Israel are never to forget the ancient practice of moving from place to place and knowing that God moved with them. “I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle” (2 Sam. 7:6). This remembrance implies a future promise. “I have been with you wherever you went” (2 Sam. 7:9). That is, I will be with you wherever you go.
God has moved among us preeminently in the person of Jesus Christ. In this most sacred mystery, there is no question of what God wills. The Son is the will of the Father. Indeed, the Son has no other work than to do the will of the Father. God has, we might say, built the Son among us. Drawing from the image of the tent and tabernacle, St. John says in his prologue, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The translators’ words, “lived among us,” obscure an important allusion, which we hear only through a literal translation. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” The eternal Son of the Father dwelt among us as if in a tent, in the enclosure of his body. Wherever Jesus went, he carried the divine glory. And, now among us by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is at home in every place, among every family, language, people, and nation.
Quoting a renowned hymn attributed to St. Patrick, though excepting one important verse, we may build in our minds an awareness of the divine glory as always and ineffably near. “Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, … Christ below me, Christ above me never to part. Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me.” By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are overshadowed by the presence of Christ.
Adding now the verse omitted, we may take yet another all-important step in understanding the nearness of Christ. “Christ within me.” Christ is, in a sense, enwombed in every member of Christ’s body as he was uniquely so in the body of his most holy Mother. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). We all bear in our bodies the image of the Son of God, and so we are sacred temples.
Look It Up: Matthew 28:20
Think About It: God is with you and in you always.