25 12 07 Advent Our Longing and Yearning for Christ The Rev'd Dr James Lawson St Mary Magdalene Enfi скачать в хорошем качестве

25 12 07 Advent Our Longing and Yearning for Christ The Rev'd Dr James Lawson St Mary Magdalene Enfi

All four Gospels use the same words from the prophecy of Isaiah in reference to St John the Baptist. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Is 40:3). That is: John is not just a prophet. He is the last of the prophets. What they all longed for is about to happen. Israel’s history is reaching its fulfilment. God is coming; His Messiah is coming. Perhaps the most beautiful church in the world is the great Cathedral of Chartres, which is about an hour south of Paris by train. Chartres is famous for its stained glass. It also has hundreds of sculptures of men and women from the Bible. In the north porch of the cathedral, there is a statue of John the Baptist. (I invite you to look it up on the internet – look for John the Baptist, North Porch, Chartres). The sculpture is of an emaciated figure (the Bible tells us that he ate locusts and wild honey) holding an image of the Lamb of God. But what I think is most striking about this sculpture is the expression on face of the Baptist. There’s something about the poignancy and longing of his expression. It’s as if he is looking toward something that he wants so much: but he does not have it yet. Some of the saints of the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral seem blissful. It seems as if they already have received the great good they longed for: but not John the Baptist. He still yearns. He still pines. He still hungers. (As Bishop Robert Barron has noted) This makes him, an excellent saint for Advent. This holy season, of course, calls to mind the coming (adventus) of Jesus in history in His Incarnation as we prepare for Christmas, but it also anticipates the arrival of the Lord at the end of the age, that time when, as St. Paul wrote, Christ will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). This fulfilment, of course, has not yet happened. The world is still plagued by wars, famine, floods, earthquakes, and pandemics. And our lives are still damaged and diminished by depression, failure, sin, and frustration. God’s creation is good, but, in the words of an ancient hymn, this life is “a vale of tears.” When we are alone, when we don’t need to keep up appearances, perhaps all of us assume the expression of the John the Baptist of Chartres. We long for what is beautiful and absent...