Tuesday, December 5, 2017

1st Week of Advent, Wednesday, 06-112-17

Isaiah 25:6-10 / Matthew 15:29-37

In this particular season, whether we want to call it the festive season, or the Advent season or the rainy season, a famous figure will appear to bring some cheer, and a short popular description of this figure will tell us who this is.

He has a white bushy beard, quite roundish, dressed in red with white trimmings, and his famous quote is “ho, ho, ho”.

Yes, we are talking about Santa Claus, who appears around this time in the festive decorations and also in advertisements. But Santa Claus is not a clever figment of commercial imagination.

The name, Santa Claus comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas which means St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas was a 4th century saint and the bishop of Myra (which is modern day Turkey), and his feast day is today, 6th December.

Many miracles were attributed to the intercession of St. Nicholas and he became known as Nicholas the Wonder Worker.

He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. And so he became the model for Santa Claus.

One of his famous acts of charity was towards a poor man who had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them.

This would mean that they would remain unmarried and in the face of poverty, they might be forced into prostitution.

When St. Nicholas came to know about it, he decided to help the poor man secretly.

Under cover of night, he went to the poor man’s house and threw three small bags, each filled with gold coins, one for each daughter, through the window opening of the man’s house.

But later, the poor man found out about it and came to thank St. Nicholas. In humility, St Nicholas said that it was not him he should thank. Rather he should thank God and God alone.

Yes, thank God for the gift of saints like St. Nicholas to show His great love and His help to those in need.

And the words of today's readings are fulfilled: On this mountain, the Lord of host will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food , a banquet of fine wines, of food rich and juicy, of fine strained wines. On this mountain, he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples. The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek.

And on the hills of Galilee, Jesus felt sorry for the people and fed them with more than enough.

God's compassion and love for us is renewed every Christmas and Advent is a time to realise God's love for us through people who show us His love.

May St. Nicholas pray for us that we too in turn will show God's love to those in need during this Advent.