The Unannounced Christ

THE UNANNOUNCED CHRIST

Mt. 24:37-44

The whole purpose of the Old Testament was God preparing the world for the coming of His Son.  Through the sin of disobedience we had rejected God’s offer of Paradise.  But God Who loved us so much could not lose us forever so He formed a Chosen People.  He would guide and prepare them for the coming of His Son.  The prophets had spoken about His coming for centuries, and there was a strong hope in Israel that some day God would send a Redeemer.  Certainly they did not expect it to happen the way it did.  God must have surprised everyone when He allowed His Son to be born in a stable.  After all those long years of preparation His Coming was overlooked by most people.

They were certainly not looking for a carpenter leading a donkey on which sat his very tired and very pregnant young wife.  Who would have expected Christ to come that way?  He slipped into the world unnoticed except for Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachary, a few shepherds and some Wise Men who came from the east.

Before we become too critical of the Chosen People, what about ourselves?  How aware are we of the presence of Christ in our lives?  Does He often go unnoticed?  I hope all of us are aware of His loving presence with us in the Mass and in the tabernacle. What about all the other times He comes to us? 

I love that story about a shopkeeper who dreamed that Jesus would visit him the next day.  It was one of those vivid dreams that he was absolutely certain would come true.  As soon as he got up from bed he wondered whether Jesus would visit him in his shop.  So as soon as he arrived at work he and his woman assistant got to work to make sure that in the short time he had everything would look spic and span ready for his important Guest.  While they were dusting his assistant told him that her mother, who was very frail and elderly, had had a very poor night and she wondered if after work he would drop her off at her mother’s house as it was on his way home.  He said he would willingly take her.

The bell above the entrance door would ring every now and then and one of them would briefly stop spring cleaning to attend to the customer.  In fact the shopkeeper, every time the door opened, would look to see if it was His special guest, but each time he was disappointed.  Around noon a down and out came into the shop and begged for some small change to buy a drink. The shopkeeper took pity on him and made him and his assistant a drink.

The afternoon passed as uneventfully as the morning.  Shoppers came and went.  One of his regular customers, a widow, stayed long enough to tell him how her wayward son had again got into trouble with the law and was now in jail in the next town.  She was so upset.  He showed his care and concern by giving her his phone number and told her to ring him when next she wanted to visit her son.  He would take her.

The working day was drawing to a close and the shop had never looked so neat and tidy.  Jesus had not come and the shopkeeper felt a little disappointed.  He dropped his assistant at her mother’s home.  It was his custom after his evening meal to read at random a passage of the Gospels.  That evening he read the parable of the sheep and the goats on Judgement Day.  “I was thirsty and you gave Me drink;....I was a stranger and you made Me welcome, sick and you visited Me, in prison and you came to see Me.”  After reading that, he knew that his dream had come true.  Jesus had visited him in many guises. 

Lord Jesus You came on earth 2000 years ago and You come to us in the most unexpected ways every day, the time of Advent tells us You will come again to us this Christmas.  So let us not while away the time looking for Your final coming and miss Your daily visits in our lives.  Yes, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour we do not expect.”

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