Advent 4: Are you holding Jesus in your heart?

To be Jesus’ friends we must make fidelity to Him and His Church our first priority

This post is written by Fr Sean Sheehy for Catholic Unscripted. We apologise for posting this slightly late. A Christmas Day refelction from Fr Sheehy follows tomorrow

Jesus is the most important Person in our lives because the kind of relationship we have with Him and His Church determines the state of our eternity. Our face-to-face encounter with Jesus in death is such a crucial meeting that out of His love for us He urges us to, “Keep your eyes open, for you know not the day or the hour” (Mt 25:13) when it takes place. That means we must be prepared for that event every day because we don’t know when it may happen. He warns us to be prepared by being His friends on His conditions, not on ours. Jesus reveals that His friends are those who “… do what I command you” (Jn 15:14). To be Jesus’ friends we must make fidelity to Him and His Church our first priority and in whose company we call God “Our Father - Abba” (Mt 6:9).

God’s Fidelity to Us

God’s call to be His obedient children began with Adam and Eve. However, they rejected Him and became Satan’s children thereby dooming themselves to eternal misery. God, ever-loving, just and merciful, began wresting the fallen man and woman from Satan’s grip by calling Abraham, a man of obedient faith, to form a people through whom He would offer His blessing to all mankind (Gen 12:3). Through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Judges, Prophets, Kings, and Wisdom Literature, God formed a people and entered into many covenants with them through the centuries of formation. He promised them: “I will set up my dwelling among you, and I will not cast you off. I will live in your midst; I will be your God and you shall be my people” (Lev 26:11-12). Through Moses He gave them the Decalogue to be the moral standard against which He would measure His people’s fidelity and fruitfulness. During the days of Isaiah, God promised them a visible Sign of His presence. “It is this: ‘The maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a Son whom she will call Immanuel” (Is 7:14). Approximately seven-hundred years later, God fulfilled His promise through the cooperation of a young sinless virgin named Mary, through whom His Word became flesh in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. God spoke to Mary through the Archangel Gabriel and bade her to, “Rejoice, O highly favoured daughter! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women … You have found favour with God. You shall conceive and bear a Son and give Him the Name Jesus. Great will be His dignity and He will be called Son of the Most High God” (Lk 1:28-32). God has come Himself has come among us!

A Momentous Event

St. Matthew records this momentous event in His Gospel: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the power of the Holy Spirit … The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, have no fear about taking Jesus as your wife. It is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived this child. She is to have a Son and you are to name Him Jesus because He will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:18-21). Later, Jesus would announce that, “The time has come and the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News!” (Mt 1:15). Jesus is Immanuel - “God-with-us.” Today the Church is the visible sign that “God is with us”!

The Role of the Church

Is Jesus still with us? Yes, in His Church. He assured her leaders, Peter and the other Apostles and their successors: “Know that I am with you always, until the end of the world!” (Mt 28:20). Jesus founded His Church on Peter as the visible sign of His presence when He said to him: “I will entrust to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19), “He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects Him who sent me” (Lk 10:16). Jesus made His Church the visibly structured instrument through which all people can come to know and meet Him in obedient Faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. The first visible meeting with Jesus happens in Baptism when the baptized person starts out on the road to eternal life. “Eternal life is this: to know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ” (Jn 17:3). It’s in and through Jesus’ Church that people come to personally know and join Jesus as their Lord, Redeemer, Saviour, and Giver of a peace the world can’t give. With this in mind it makes sense to open our hearts to receive Jesus as the most honoured Guest of our soul. What’s necessary to accomplish this are “sinless hands,” a “clean heart,” “rejecting what’s vain,” and “being honest with the neighbour” (Ps 24:4). Such a person will “receive a blessing from the Lord, a reward from God his Saviour” (Ps 24:5).

Jesus Is Here

We prepare, then, to meet Jesus when we die by walking with Him as faithfully obedient members of His Church while we’re on earth. Through His Church Jesus invites us: “Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Mt 11:28). Submitting to God’s will is never a burden. He’s here through His Spirit laying His healing and life-giving hands on us in each of His Church’s Sacraments. He’s here particularly in the Holy Mass where He empowers us through the ordained priest to “Do this in memory of me!” (Lk 22:19), namely to participate in His sacrifice on our behalf, wherein He saves us from our sins. He’s here to adopt us as His brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of His Father, in Baptism. He’s here offering the grace of repentance and forgiveness to reform our life in Confession. He’s here to nurture our soul in the Holy Eucharist , offering Himself to us as the Bread of Life. He’s here for the sick in Extreme Unction. He’s here to make us His public witnesses in Confirmation. He’s here to unite man and woman in Matrimony assuring them of His unconditional love so that they may be able to love one another unconditionally until death do them part. He’s here conforming men to Himself as His leaders in His Name in Holy Orders so that through them He can give us the gift of Himself. He’s here asking His Father to send us the Holy Spirit with His gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, prayerfulness, fortitude, fear of the Lord (Is 11), and His fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control regardless of what we face in life (Gal 5:22-23). He’s here in His Church’s community to satisfy our need to belong to God and His family sustaining and nurturing our identity as His sons and daughters. So prepare for your death by holding Jesus in your heart NOW as Mary held Him in her arms in a stable at Bethlehem.

Hold Jesus in Your Heart

I wish you a joyful Christmas and may 2026 bring you 20/20 vision to see that Jesus is here in His Church where He calls you and me to worship His Father with Him; where, as the most honoured Guest of our soul, He fills our heart with His Spirit that enables us, like Mary, to make Him visible to the world as its Lord and Saviour.