[AI translation] This verse is from a happy father's thanksgiving to God, thanking God for blessing his marriage to a male child in his late old age. John the Baptist's father blesses the Lord here, and his song expands into a beautiful prophecy of touched gratitude. He looks at the new-born child and before his eyes appears another Child who is to be born. In him is fulfilled that "the sunrise from on high has visited us, to appear to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death." The Gospel speaks of God's visitation. Then it also talks about the purpose for which God visits us. First it mentions God's mercy in visiting us from on high. Now let us take this quite literally. There is something quite sublime in the idea of God visiting someone, of visiting people.Perhaps we can get more of the sensation of this otherwise very familiar news by referring to something quite different, say the illustration of the problem of flying saucers. Lately, the world press has once again begun to focus on the mysterious problem of flying saucers. The possibility that mysterious creatures from another planet may be coming to visit this earth is stirring up thought. Some people think it impossible, others are curious to see what the scientists come up with. The very idea that mysterious visitors from another world could come to us humans is a sensation. What is just a possibility today, we do not know what will come of it, actually happened on that particular Christmas night. The mysterious, incomprehensible signal did not come to earth from a great celestial body orbiting in outer space, but from the sky itself, from the invisible background of the whole visible universe, from a completely different world, came someone, a mysterious being beyond all understanding, a divine visitor in the Child who was born in Bethlehem. Literally, what happened was that we were visited from on high by the sunrise.
It is true that Jesus' suffering, death, resurrection, life on earth, the thirty-three years on earth, are all nothing other than a visitation of the merciful God here on earth. In the person of Jesus, God's unheard-of high-powered being was transformed into a being that can be understood, used, lived, and made human. The precious name "Jesus" means the joyful good news: "People, God has come among us, God has visited us! Good news? In our human parlance, we speak of God's visitation as the announcement of some great calamity, some great calamity. We all know the saying, "Oh, God has visited me!". I asked him how he was. He began, "Well, we have been visited by God! He started listing all the trouble that had happened to him recently. I know, it's just symbolic language, but it's actually more serious than we think. He does visit us, the problem is that we are afraid of him. God never wants to hurt someone He visits, but always wants to help them, even when they are hurting, even when He visits with adversity. His visit is always a help, a mercy, because it is always in Jesus. It is never something that frightens or scares, but something that lifts and blesses. The various troubles of our lives are like a knocking, a knocking at the door: they are a sign that someone is at the door, that someone wants to come into our lives, that God wants to visit us. Of course, it is not only troubles and sufferings that signal God's visit, but also the days of joy, the Christmas feast, the table set for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Because ever since God visited this earth once, he has always come again, he wants to visit, he knocks, it's just a question of how ready we are.
Didn't you refuse any of the gifts you received yesterday? Don't refuse even the biggest gift. The rest is just a symbol of that. Don't refuse Jesus himself, he wants to come, he wants to meet you, he wants to tell you something. He may come to ask you for an account of your sins. But only so that we may finally know the debt he paid on the cross. He knows everyone's troubles best, He always brings a blessing. Why are we afraid of Him? I would like to cry out to all who have heard the divine visitor knocking at the door of their hearts, do not fear Him, open the door to Him! It means mercy, because it is not the God who is angry, not the God who is angry, but the God who has mercy, the God who saves. His visitation is always a joy, as the angels of Bethlehem sang, "We proclaim to you a great joy, which will be a joy to all the people, because the Saviour, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, has been born to you today in the city of David. So God will visit him, as the Scripture says, who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.
How does this visitation take place? As the sun shines from on high, as when the golden rays of the rising sun shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. Now let us take this quite literally, as I had an experience in this connection when I visited a very old sick man in a miserable hovel the other day. He was sitting in a dark, unheated hole in physical and spiritual darkness, in the shadow of death. We started talking. Of course, about Jesus' death, resurrection, eternal life. Suddenly, indeed, as if the rays of the rising sun had shone on that little crippled house, suddenly a heavenly light shone on the old man's face. He said with a wonderful happy smile: Now I know that even if I die, I shall live! I was so moved by this touching sight: what power Jesus has, what heavenly light, what a revelation can make such a wretched man happy, and through him me too. No one else could do it. A very clever man, a very rich man of great power, what can he do? Nothing in the world. This man, who really lay there in darkness, in the shadow of death, can really only be visited by God as a sunrise from on high.
But in that darkness sit not only such old dying people, but young, vigorous, carefree people, I could almost say: everyone who is not yet in the Light of the world, who is not living in the presence of the living Jesus. The only reason we do not see the darkness is because we do not know the true Light. It is only when one sees Jesus that one realises how unbearable it is to be without Jesus! Jesus' words, deeds, teachings, death, resurrection shine a heavenly light in the often so confusing darkness of this earthly life. In him the most fundamental questions are clarified: who am I, where have I come from, where am I going, what is sin, what is eternity, what is death? In the light that shines from Jesus, we see not only the momentary joys that are offered to us, but also the temptation that lies behind them, and the peril to which he wants to lead us.
In the light of Jesus, one sees not only the suffering that consumes one's body or soul, but also the meaning and the blessing that it hides within. In the presence of Jesus, I see not only death in its unrelenting gloomy light, but also what lies behind it, what it conceals: eternal life. Where the light of Jesus shines, we realise at once how much beauty is all around us in the world in which we live. Have we not noticed how, through one Word that brought Jesus really close, how much light is suddenly shone out? And one is amazed to see in service, in the otherwise depressing, drab, dull life, in sickness, in disappointment, in suffering, how many great opportunities, opportunities for good, for love, for helping others in this hateful, cold world of man. When you read by the light of a lamp and cannot see, what do you do? You bring the book close to the light. Do the same with your own life! I want to do the same, to bring my life closer to the light, as Jesus shines the gospel before us. Do this and bring closer to the Light your sins, your worries, your sufferings, your family life, everything that hurts, that weighs you down, that ruins you, that is incomprehensible, that is confusing, that is problematic! Bring it all there, so that all that was dark may be illuminated in you and around you! For God has visited us like the sun from on high, to appear to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
Our Word also speaks of the purpose of this divine visitation. Prophecy tells us that He will guide our feet into the way of peace. I am convinced that there is nothing in the world that we need so much, that this world, this humanity today, needs so much, and that every worthy person is waiting for, than this very thing: peace. Let us not be surprised at the world's tensions when there is so much tension, so much conflict and so much warfare in the most basic human coexistence, such as in the family, in the relationship between old and young, or in the neighbourhood. I believe that the fight against nuclear war begins here, in this smallest of circles, trying to tread the path of peace and justice again and again every day, to set our feet on this very difficult path. But we need someone who can really set the feet of humanity on this great path. And if anyone can, it is Jesus alone. Observe the impact of this Jesus, born two thousand years ago, that at Christmas time He extends Himself even to those who do not even think about Him, who do not even believe in Him. Millions of people are running from shop to shop, queuing up to spend their hard-earned money, often ten or a hundred times the amount they would have thought a hundred times before, and spending it to please someone or to put a smile on someone's face. Perhaps the name of Jesus was not even spoken, and yet God's first Christmas gesture moved in their hands as they gave gifts, gave joy, whether they wanted to or not, whether they believed or not, their cheerful lavishness, their gift giving, their joy giving, all spoke of the fact that Jesus was born once. Unwittingly, the influence of Jesus was rippling through people's hearts, the influence of the Jesus who came to guide our feet on the path of peace.
I think that many of you who are here now have given not only a gift, but also a kind word, willingly or unwillingly, and that the word you spoke, perhaps the first word, was certainly a better word, a kinder word than the usual ones you usually speak. And if from that good word a smile was born on a gloomy or sad face, know that in that smile there was also a little bit of Jesus, because it could only have happened because Someone from heaven visited humanity on earth to guide our feet into the path of peace! What a wonderful thing that the gesture, the word, at Christmas is a little different from what it usually is. So here, we could be different than usual, we could move this hand or say this word with more love, more kindness, more understanding. Why only on this one day, on this one evening? Because Jesus is here now, and will remain with us every day, according to the Word, until the end of the world. It is such a great thing that Christmas is the day of Jesus' birth, the birthday of that divine visitor to the world and has become known as the celebration of love! But if Jesus is there, why shouldn't love expand into days, weeks, seasons, decades, sanctified lives?
So take the warmth and light of Christmas love to someone who is still in the shadow of darkness, of death, who perhaps does not believe in God because he no longer believes in people. Believe me, this world is longing for those whose feet are guided by this divine love on the path of peace.
Amen
Date: 25 December 1967 Christmas Day
Lesson
Lk 2,1-14