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On this Christmas Eve day and last day of Advent, we sing, for the last time until next Advent, "O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel." We are mourning in lonely exile. We cry out and sing out for God to visit and ransom His people this Christmas season (Lk 1:68). We must be "rid of fear and delivered from the enemy" (Lk 1:74). We need Emmanuel, the Messiah, Jesus. Only Jesus, the Truth, can set us free (see Jn 8:36; 14:6; 8:32). He began His public ministry by proclaiming: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; therefore He has anointed Me. He has sent Me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord" (Lk 4:18-19). Jesus announced a perpetual Jubilee Year of liberation (see Lv 25:8ff). Receive from Jesus the ultimate Christmas present — freedom to "serve Him devoutly and through all our days be holy in His sight" (Lk 1:75). This Christmas, proclaim as Martin Luther King preached: "Free at last, Lord God Almighty, free at last!" |