Fourth Sunday of Advent
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
	How many languages do you know? Most Americans might say they have a primary language, can follow the basics of another encountered in school or in the workplace, and maybe know the barest elements of a third. Yet nearly everyone is fluent in languages of symbol and ritual, languages that transcend the spoken word and may perhaps communicate more clearly. A dance, the delights of the table, the thrill of sport, the power of a painting, a shared silence on a surf‑washed beach or under a desert sky, a burst of delighted applause, all communicate without a single word.
	Sacrament empowers fluency in these languages. A little girl returning from Mass where a baby had been baptized was asked to summarize her day thus far. “I went to church, and some little baby became my brother.” That’s far more accurate than the adult’s remark, “There was a baptism at Mass today.” When we celebrate sacrament, Christ is always calling us into deeper fluency with the languages beyond speech. Sacraments open our senses to the presence of God precisely so we can respond to the depth of that love more fully.
—Rev. James Field