Homily for Wednesday of the 1st Week of Advent

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/120507.shtml

With Jesus, there is a superabundance of life. He says to his disciples, I am the way, the truth, and the life. In today's signs, Jesus heals life and feeds life miraculously, and the crowds are amazed. But the full revelation of Jesus that is to come is that He is not merely an instrument of life, He is life itself! Pope Benedict in his new encyclical Spes Salvi shows us that the eternal life that Jesus brings is not merely a restored and well-fed version of life as we know it in this world. This is not the proper hope of the Christian. The proper hope of the Christian is not simply for an elongation of life, but for the life that comes from a relationship with the person who is life. This is eternal life, to know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent! So let us hope to know Jesus. Jesus' signs today point toward the uniqueness of his person. It is through a relationship to this person that we are to hope for life everlasting!