His Love is Always New and Ever Young

Advent is a time of graced expectation. As lights are put up on houses and trees are erected in living rooms across the world, the hearts and souls of Christian men and women find themselves filled with warmth and hope at the coming of Christ into the world.

In G.K. Chesterton’s timeless classic, The Everlasting Man, he observes there is no other name on the face of the earth that evokes in the hearts of even hardened sinners the feelings that accompany the word Bethlehem. Yet, in the shattered world of sin and brokenness, Advent is often a time of great stress and even anxiety and fear.

Advent in Our Time

Families in our time are often scattered across many states and even countries, we are a transient people who seem at ease with a life of picking up and moving wherever job opportunities present themselves.

Homeschooling families are no different; in some sense, they are more mobile because they are not attached to a school community (though coops are becoming increasingly common, a good development in my view).

Advent, then, is for many of us, a time of preparation to receive or travel to far-flung relatives, parents, and siblings who are only seen two or three times a year.

It is not news that anxiety and fear often accompany Christmas preparations. Many have observed this in recent decades, both in secular and religious outlets.

Often, the family to be visited or hosted contains members on difficult or even hostile terms with one another. This, too, is not new news.

What is New

What is new is the birth of Christ Jesus in the cave at Bethlehem.

The longtime chaplain of Seton Home Study, Father Constantine Belisarius, frequently quoted Chesterton on the youth of God. Only a child, Chesterton observed, does not tire of the same activity over and over again.

A little girl will ask her dad to toss her in the air again and again and again until his arms ache and he finds that his child is much heavier than she was five minutes ago. She does not tire of the same joy; it is new each time.

A little boy will ask his mother to read him the same book every night before he goes to sleep. The same plot twist carries the same surprise and exuberance with each reading; it is new each time.

Prepare to Receive Him

After more than two thousand years, the Lord Jesus has not grown tired of being born into the home of every human family who will receive Him.

The grace is new each year, the love of the Infant King is more each Christmas, and the eyes of the Virgin Mary fall on the Nativity scene in every house with the same love which lighted on that first manger beneath the floor of the world.

The expectation of Christmas in each of our lives is exceeded by leaps and bounds by the expectation that the Lord Jesus feels when we prepare to receive Him into our hearts.

We can almost see the Christ Child burying His face into His mother’s neck as He squirms with excitement at the prospect of each family opening the doors of their homes to His Presence.

Our joy at seeing Him reflects His joy in seeing us.

The grace of Christmas is new for you this year. Whatever brokenness and sin exist in your life, in the life of your spouse, the life of your family, or the life of your parish, none of it surprised the Christ Child. It is this He has come to deal with; it is your sin and your brokenness He has come to heal.

And it does not matter to Him how often you have confessed or failed to forgive those who have hurt you. It is His joy to be patient with us. It is His joy to bring us His forgiveness and His peace. Remember, He is like a child, and He never tires of doing what He loves: giving Himself in mercy.

Grace Renewed

On Christmas morning, when you attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Infant King will come down onto the altar into the unworthy hands of the priest. He will lie on gold in folds of linen and be broken to be given.

As you approach the altar, which is the manger, bring to Him all the anxieties, fears, and brokenness of this Advent. He is not afraid of our sins and is not ashamed to be found in our company. His grace is renewed for you. Your sins are old and tired. His love is always new and ever young, like that of a child.

About Father Andrew Clark

Father Andrew Clark is the second of eight children. He was homeschooled before attending Christendom College, where he graduated in 2014 with a B.A. in History. He entered seminary formation for the Diocese of Arlington in 2017 and was ordained a priest on June 3, 2023. He is assigned as parochial vicar to Blessed Sacrament Parish in Alexandria VA. He is privileged to be one of Dr. Mary Kay Clark's many grandchildren.