Stand Erect and Raise Your Heads

Over-stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey, too many deserts, disappointed or elated on the outcomes of football games, weary or wide-awake from early bargain shopping, and greeted by rain and gray skies, we need some reassurance from outside our little worlds. And it comes. The Alleluia verse before today's Gospel urges us to "Stand erect and raise [our] heads because [our] redemption is at hand." As we ease into Advent and for four weeks receive a hefty dose of this kind of assurance that indeed "God lives among his people." (cf. Rev 21: 3b), may we be fortified to stand with assurance and move confidently ahead. God dwells in our altar tabernacles and in the tabernacles of our hearts. We are God's holy temple, come rain, come shine, come weal or come woe. So too are our family members, our neighbors and our friends. Walking temples we are, most of the time unconcious of the privilege God has given us, to be his dwelling place. How sacred, how richly endowed so freely and abundantly! We have every reason to stand erect and hold our heads high with pride and dignity, for not only is our redemption at hand (initiated by the birth of Jesus and completed by his death and resurrection) but if we are living God's ways, we are experiencing a taste of the redemption that fully awaits us when through death we enter into eternal life. Let our fatigue and weariness give way to energy powered by God's love and God's presence.
Bro. Rene