Advent Mass 2004

Today we gather as Georgetown community members have every Sunday for more than two centuries. Faculty and staff, alumni and friends, coming together to mark a tradition upon which this University is built. As the Angel reminds us in our Gospel reading, “God is with us,” present here among us.

In much the same way as the Angel reassures Joseph of the Lord’s presence, we come together in a season of cold and darkness to draw warmth and strength from one another. Our communal celebration serves to remind us of God’s spirit as the light and life that animates our campus.

At our core, we hold that the God is at work here – in the crush of finals and the rush to return home to friends and loved ones. Through the late nights in the library and the early mornings on the Potomac. In our classrooms, meeting rooms, and dorm rooms. In all that we do.

We gather to celebrate God’s presence many times throughout the year; commencements, reunions, the beginning of the academic year. This season we celebrate especially God’s gifts of magical hope and optimism. God’s presence in our lives is miraculous. We don’t always have the words, the vocabulary, the syntax, the grammar to capture the experience. But at different moments – moments like this – we have a feeling, deep within ourselves, that we are not alone. We have a feeling of consolation, of peace, of joy, the feeling of love.

As a community we gather to celebrate this feeling and draw strength from the knowledge that Emmanuel has come and “God is with us.”