God Is Always With Us - 4th Sunday of Advent 1.0 - a podcast by Fr John Ehrich, STL

Abraham and Sara wait and are blessed with the fulfilled plan of allowing them to conceive. Even we’ll pass their old age, they desire to conceive and are finally graced with a child. There are many similar storylines in the Bible that share this theme. Conception as a gift from God.

Its almost as if God was preparing humanity for the big one. The immaculate conception and the very salvation that would miraculously enter into the world. Emmanuel, God with us. We see in this narration a God who takes responsibility for our sin, who desires to be with us in our suffering as the only way to restore us. It is not only a story that is a mystery to our scientific minds, but to our psyche - that Christ desires to be actually apart of human history by becoming human Himself. He desires to be close, to be with us even in our unfaithfulness. We can look at our lives; times when we have been prosperous and times of victory, but also times of great need for help and healing. This God wants to meet us and for us to trust Him to bring us to greater fidelity. Let us acknowledge this reality as a way to be consoled in our suffering and our human needs. We have the grace of the gift of this conception narrative and can be grateful for a God who will never abandon us but rather, truly be with us in everything.

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