Walking with Jesus: Fourth Sunday of Advent

Micah 5:1-4; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45

We are within days of celebrating Christmas. We remember Christmases past and look forward to the Christmas present. We have pushed ourselves to get everything completed, and we are ready. What is our overall disposition? Many of us come with worries and anxiety: What new variants of COVID-19 will appear? Will our elderly sick be able to live more years? Will there ever be an end to the societal problems in the world: migrants fleeing to find a welcoming, peaceful country to raise their children … people living in horrible conditions because of wars and poverty … exploitation of children being sold for pleasure … killings … beatings ... starvation … racial and cultural inequities and abuse … and far too many living without hope.

Yet hope is the meaning of the season. Hope is the direction of the readings. Our God came to the world to take on human flesh. This always was His plan. And God’s plan includes every person born into our world: the accepted, the rejected … the sickly, the malformed … those living in hope … those who have little or no hope. This is where we are summoned to bring God’s plan of salvation for all. God has called you and me. A great Christmas reflection is how God has touched me with love and helped me develop a deeper understanding of what His love means. You and I have been called to be God’s instrument, just as Mary was. When God enters our world, He enters into each and every person. We, you and I, need to become more aware of the people in our world who need to encounter God’s word of love through us. The bottom line is that when we realize that God is with us, that God cares about us, that God gifts us to help others realize that they are loved, we are compelled to act. How can we know this?

We look at Mary in Luke’s gospel. She is young, perhaps only 12 to 15 years old. We know that she loves the Lord. She is intent on being dedicated to the Lord. An angel appears to her. What a shock … but Mary has a calmness about her … she has been chosen. What does this mean? She hears the words of the angel and consistently reflects on them. This encounter with the angel radically transforms her. After encountering God’s messenger, Mary’s first action is to travel to attend to her elderly cousin who miraculously has conceived a child. It is quite a distance away. Does she go alone? Do some family members go with her? Is she placed in a caravan for protection? She just can’t have gone alone, with bandits and robbers ever present. But she goes ... and I feel some object to her going. Mary insists … the Lord is calling me … my pregnancy and Elizabeth’s are both from God. Mary’s womb is home to God. Mothers tell us the specialness of carrying their child. They realize so deeply that God’s gift is living within them. The Incarnation teaches us that we can all be home with God … that God lives in you and me all the time. Is there a message in this? Who will I reveal God to this Christmas? If God is in me … and He is … and he loves me … and He does … and He needs me … He always does ... and I am called to help others see this God of love … and I am … then I need to see God in the next person … because God is with each person. Who do I need to see differently to see God in that person? Who do I need to stop judging? Who do I need to accept as God’s messenger to me this Christmas?

Elizabeth says, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1: 43) Why does Luke include this story? I’m sure he wants to show that John the Baptist is the prophet who crossed between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Savior has finally come. I think there is a bit more. Maybe we could see a bit of ourselves in Elizabeth and Mary? Maybe we are to take inspiration from them and be a little more daring and courageous? Maybe we have to see that our lives are like theirs in the sense that it’s our journey to discover more deeply this God who is always with us and caring for us though thick and thin. Maybe we are to be a bit like Elizabeth who recognizes God in the most unlikely places, even in her young cousin. Maybe it is in realizing that a pre-teen or teenager is just as likely to be aware of our God who loves each of us all the time. Maybe it’s in believing and living love.

So I reflect on:

• When I look at others, what do I see? Do I see the God within them … loving them as He loves me?
• Or do I see their faults, idiosyncrasies, limitations? Even a person I don’t want to love?
• Elizabeth didn’t just see her relative coming for a visit; she saw the God within Mary coming to meet her too. Do I see the same?
  

Sacred Space 2022 states:

“Lord, as Christmas draws ever closer, free me from being self-absorbed and self-centered. Instead fill me with eagerness and generosity of heart. Like Mary, may I too go out in loving service of others and experience Your Love leaping up in me and in those with whom I come in contact.”