Good Day! Let us behold Jesus, the Word incarnate revealing himself to us in the Sunday readings. Today is the Forth Sunday of advent, only few days away from Christmas. Hopefully we can pause and reflect amidst the holidays rush.
How is your spiritual preparation for Jesus’ coming? We can learn from the Gospel, Mary Visits her kinswoman Elizabeth so that she could assist her in the demands of child birth at her advanced age. This event follows the evangelical nuncio that Mary would bear God’s Son. Bearing Jesus and serving others, especially the needy, is a powerful spiritual preparation for Christmas.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Christmas a season of goings and comings. This is what we want to reflect on. Very often we look at the Christmas decorations or even contemplate on the nativity scene, we are transfixed on the beauty of the depiction, of the birth of Christ, but very often it lacks movement. They are permanently in place but the original Christmas or preparation for the Christmas is a very dynamic event.
A small town of Bethlehem which could not boost any greatness was chosen by God to be the birth place of someone from the line of David. From that small town according to Micah, will come forth, will go forth, a ruler for whole Israel. A ruler coming from small town but will not stray in the small town, from that small town He and his reign will go forth to the whole Israel. The whole of Israel will experience righteousness, justice, and peace. The greatness of this ruler shall reach to the ends of the earth. You cannot control and keep the dynamism of Incarnation and salvation. It must come forth, go forth until the ends of the earth. This ruler, whose greatness reaches to the ends of the earth, who comes from above, is Jesus Christ. Jesus Comes from God the Father. Jesus comes to world with the body, so that in his body he could do the Will of the God. It is come from the God, coming to the world as a human being for a specific purpose: to do the Will of the God. By this Will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. in
Today’s gospel we continue the same theme Christmas a season of goings and comings. Yes, it is going forth, actually coming to come someone. Here we have Mary who was visited by the angel and through her fiat, the Word of God, the Son of God came in the flesh and took flesh in her womb.
The second reading happen actually in Mary’s body. Mary welcomes the Son of God and go forth. Mary could have used an excuse to say I am pregnant and I am the mother of the Son of God and I will stay home in Nazareth, but no, the very dynamism of the coming forth of the Son of God and coming to her impelled her to go. She goes forth to a town in Juda and meets there her kinswoman Elizabeth who was also with child, her six months even. Mary goes out, she goes out not alone but with the Son of God who came to her. She does not go out aimlessly but she goes out so that her Son comes out to another family. through her, Jesus, her Son could start his mission: to bring good news and joy. Vow, and that happened, Elizabeth filled with Holy Spirit and said, who am I to be visited by the mother of my Lord. So Mary’s going out is coming to someone. Going and coming but for a purpose: solidarity, service, communion, bringing joy, bringing salvation.
My dear brothers are sisters, where are you going on this Christmas? Where are you impelled to go? Will you be coming to families, persons so that people may say who am I to be visited by the Lord? Christmas is not to move aimlessly. Christmas should impel us to go so that many more people would experience the joy that was promised from of old. May God bless you all!
