There is actually a mass for December 24th in the morning. Few people attend it but is it the last mass of the Advent Season. The gospel is predictably the Canticle of Zachariah, the father of John, the precursor to Jesus. The second reading is less predictable, at least for most of us. It is taken from 2 Samuel chapter 7.
The storm has calmed around David and his kingdom is finally at peace. It is then decided that God needs a proper dwelling place. It God who then intervenes and sends a prophesy that he will be the builder of a house, a house for/of David. David is told that
Your house and your Kingdom shall endure forever before me;your throne shall stand firm forever.
For us Christians this house is the Church, not the building, but the mystical body of Christ. It is our firm faith that the Church is the fulfillment of this promise made so long ago to David. It is house not build by human hands.
If we look close we see a characteristic that we don't often think about, indestructibility. God promises that this house shall endure forever, and God's promises are true. Do we truly believe that the house in indestructible? Do we trust that promise. At 20 years of age I embraced the Catholic faith because I came to believe. Jesus established his house, him Kingdom from the house of David and it will have no end. Even if the people inside the house are determined to tear it apart, to tear it down. It cannot be done.
In just a few hours Christians around the world will begin to gather to celebrate their vigils of the Incarnation, the Birth of God as man. The cornerstone of the indestructible house.
What role will we play in the year to come? Will we each be good stewards who work to not only maintain but to build up the house? Or will we be saboteurs tearing down our own house from the inside? It happens.
On this last day of Advent, it is time for us to take one more look around the inside of the house that is our heart, time for one last cleaning, so that it will be a presentable house into which we can bring, the newborn King.
