Advent I: He comes!

Listen! The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes! This voice is, at long last, the opened voice of God, the Coming One. He breaks through, he comes to the rescue. He comes to help the helpless. So he came to Bethphage, the mouth house, that is, the mouth house of God, for at  the coming of Christ, the mouth of God is opened to proclaim the day of his coming. So he takes two beasts, an ass and her colt. The ass was tied, and is now loosed, for the law and the prophets were in a sense tied, they did not fully grasp what was to come, they desired to look into  their own prophecies which were always dark to them. But now the new testament is come, so he mounts the colt, the untamed yet tame beast, the new beast, and rides into Jerusalem. The people understood, for the multitude had followed him, having seen his works. So, rightly did they straw their garments in the way. This was their king, to whom  they cried Hosanna, a royal exclamation: God save the king! And so do we also echo their cry, for he comes to us today, to the rescue, to be our salvation, our redeemer, whose blood is shed for us and given to us. Hosanna! Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent.  A video of  the mass is here.