God keeps his promises!

4th Sunday of Advent Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Rev. Deacon Ronnie P. Floyd

At Baptism, we were adopted into God’s family and became members of his chosen people.

That’s why we read sacred scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments at Mass, in our private prayer, and in small groups. Because the Scriptures are the stories and memories of God’s family, which is also our family.

So when we read today the promises made to the Israelites, To the chosen people, we should see in them promises made to us!

The Old Testament is full of prophecies. But what exactly do they all mean?

Throughout the Old Testament, from the very first sign of trouble when our first parents lost their way God promises to save us.

The bible is the story of His promise to us
and of the way God has carried them out
• the calling of Abraham,
• Moses and the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt,
• The entrance into the promise land
• the establishment of Israel under King David

All of these events tell us about God’s work to save us in the past but also today, in our lives!

Today's First Reading is taken from the last period of salvation history just before the coming of the Christ.

The Kingdom of Israel broke down because:
• the people of God were unfaithful.
• they stopped following God's commandments,
o and so their nation was divided,
o and they became vulnerable to invasion.
• The Israelites failed to keep their promises to God.
o abandoning Him,
o and so they suffered the consequences.

But even though the Chosen People didn't keep their promises, God still kept his.
God didn't force his people to follow him – he allowed them to break their promises.
But because true love is freely given, without strings attached he was faithful to his promises.

This story should sound familiar because this is not only the story of Israel but our own personal story.

Just like the Children of Israel each and every one of us sins. We can’t help it, because separated from God we can never live perfect lives. And just like that first sin our sins have ripple effects, effects that further divide and alienate us from each other, and from our God. This is the situation that God promised to repair.

As St. John Chrystdom writes: The pagan desire to see and have access to God which for them took the form of the worship of statues for us becomes a reality in the birth of Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.

The God, who is all-powerful and just, keeps his promise with his people by humbling himself to become a little Child

So that we who have sinned, are able to approach him, without fear, and to find in him a foundation for true life.

This gift, of Emmanuel, is the basis for all human hope. As Pope Benedict points out in his recent encyclical letter,

He says: God is the foundation of hope: not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety.

His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us.

His love alone gives us the possibility of soberly persevering day by day,

[For it] is at the same time our guarantee of the existence of what we only vaguely sense and which nevertheless, in our deepest self, we await: a life that is “truly” life. (Spe salvi, #31)
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God’s love is the foundation of our Hope, our hope for a life and a world, that is truly human—where true happiness can be found

In a world full of suffering and difficulties, it's easy for us to forget this. We are so wounded by life, by experiences in which people have broken their promises to us, or not lived up to their word to us, that our hearts can get cold. We build walls around our hearts to protect them, but those walls end up keeping God out too.


In the mountains in northern Alaska there is a lake whose waters are always warm.

• Even in the coldest winter months, it is warm enough to swim in.
• In the midst of a frozen wasteland some underground channel constantly feeds it and keeping it warm.
• Creating a real oasis of warmth and life amid the desolation of arctic winter.

Christ is like that lake.

• No matter how much this fallen world causes us to suffer, no matter how cold the world gets, his love never weakens, his goodness never freezes over.
• Like this warm lake in the midst of arctic ice, the Heart of Christ, a heart that keeps his promises, is always there to welcome and sustain us.
• He is the fulfillment of the Father's promises.

In a couple of day we will celebrate the fulfillment of these promises, so as we enter this final, short, fourth week of Advent our hearts should be especially full of gratitude.

• But what is the best way to express this gratitude?
• God loves us, he keeps His promises to us!
• But have we loved and kept our promises to Him?

During this last day and a half of Advent let's renew our commitment to keep our promises to Him made at Baptism and Confirmation:

• to reject evil, but also to do good,
• to imitate Christ in our daily lives, most especially by
o loving God with all our hearts
o and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Let’s prepare to enter into the spirit of Christmas, a spirit that is all about giving, because when we do this we become truly God’s family and experience the life changing warmth and light of God’s Love, even in these darkest and coldest days of the year.

As we prepare to God to the Altar take a minute to recommit yourself to God to giving yourself as a gift to Him even as we prepare to receive him into our Hearts.

(Preperation materials and example from www.epriest.com)