FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE ADVENT - YEAR C

FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE ADVENT – YEAR C (Micah 5:1-4a; Heb 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45) Theme: Let us learn to see with the “Eyes of the Spirit” Reflection: God manifests himself in the small things - Today, we are entering into the last Sunday of the Advent. We have been preparing since long time, almost from three weeks, for the great celebration of the Holy Day of God’s Birth in the world. We are fast approaching the most awaited day. The more we come closer, the more we have to hasten the preparations. The preparations and also the celebrations in the level of family have been already started. The houses are decorated. The beautiful cribs find their centre at home and in the churches. The exchange of greeting cards and sweets is already on the way. Very good. Can we stop here and say that we are ready to celebrate the great festivity? The question leads us forward to ask ourselves about the spiritual preparations. The more important is the preparation of the heart for the birth of the Savior. With the Word of God we need to decorate our senses. With the Food of God we need to fill our soul. Oh! God entered into the world with the first birth. Enough. What he needs is now not the large world, not the decorated house, not the beautiful church, not even the fantastic crib. What he needs is “Our Little Heart”. He wishes to enter there. He desires to be born there. He wills to remain there. Is that heart ready for the coming of the savior? Creating a space in the heart is the only preparation that Jesus really wants and needs. For this kind of preparation the Church provides to us the readings in which we find the source of our Christian strength. - God reveals himself in the often unnoticed things: The first reading of today reveal the truth again that God does not want a large place but a small place which embraces him. He does not look for the great and famous cities for his birth. He chose a smallest village of the region of Judah, Bethlehem, a town without any special notice and importance except being the birth place of David. In fact, the people of Israel were not in condition to acknowledge the coming of the Lord because they have already neglected and thrown away Bethlehem as having any prominence. David was their king and Bethlehem is to be well edified town because of this great event. But the mode of looking on the part of Israel is changed. They have closed their eyes or at least they have diverted their look from Bethlehem to some other places. With the greedy of fast growth they have kept aside the small villages and started constructing the great citied. The growth is good but negligence of the basement and foundation will cause the house damaged. But unlike them, God did not change his view. He remains faithful for what he has promised. He promised that the Messiah would be born and will arrive from Bethlehem. His greatness can be manifested even in the tiniest things. The prophecy of God through Micah is clear: the savior will come out from the smallest of the villages but with the great power. God has various ways and modes of revealing himself. Looking for him only in the great situations or pleading him only in the grave difficulties is only human foolishness. His presence is everywhere. His power is always available. He speaks and acts in the daily and very common conditions also. Let us not close our eyes. Let us not neglect his words. Let us not hide ourselves from his presence. If only we have the eyes of the Spirit we are capable of recognizing the coming of the Lord in the various forms. If only we are ready to create a space for the Lord in our hearts we are in the grade of “reaching and remaining with him”. What more can we give to the Lord? And what more he can expect from us? Only one thing: to acknowledge and to embrace his coming. Readings: Holy Spirit brings the unity between the Old and the New - Mary gets up and goes towards Elizabeth (v.39): The gospel passage of today puts forward the attitude of Mary in her “getting up” and “going towards” immediately. These two words reveal the perfect readiness of Mary to do anything in her rapport both to God and to the others. Mary is just given the message of salvation through the angel Gabriel that she would be the mother of the Most High; when Mary is disturbed by the message and kept wondering about the words that came from above, angel gave her a sign that her cousin Elizabeth is in the sixth month of her pregnancy. When convinced Mary has expressed her willingness to take up the plan that God has for her by her great Yes: I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me as you have said. What happened here is something beyond a normal interaction. The significance of the two words is to be reflected: o Getting Up: Mary is called for a mission: mission of providing to the world a savior. The one who receives mission cannot sit there idle and still thinking about that how to do it. When one is given the mission, he is given also the strength to realize it as early as possible. Mary knows that God has elected her for a specific mission. With her readiness to carry it forward immediately expressed in her “Great Amen”, she does not want to waste anymore time. She Gets Up. Getting up here mean she prepares and moves ahead to fulfill the mission she has accepted. o Going Towards: Mary is aware that the mission is not for herself and for her personal benefit. With the consciousness of this truth she gets up and goes towards. Going towards here means that Mary is available for all the actions that God fulfills in her and through her for the wellbeing and salvation of all. What she has received is to be distributed to all and to be shared with all. She is full of grace and this grace has to be place for the advantage of everyone she meets. She remains not intact but in movement. - Mary’s movement is “in hurry” (v.39): Mary gets up and goes towards her old cousin Elizabeth. But the gospel passage recalls to us that she in hurry. Why she is in hurry? For two reasons: one, she wants to verify the sign that the angel has given her; and second, she wants to extend her help for her cousin who is in need. Even here Mary’s readiness to act for God and for others is manifested. o To verify and confirm: She did not keep quite when the Word of God has come to her. The sign which is given is to be researched and verified. She has done the same, not that she is doubtful, but for to confirm it. God’s words and actions are to be verified by faith and reason. She does not want to neglect it. She does not want to postpone it. She knows that it is not a simple annunciation but the eternal plan of God for which in fact she was praying and waiting. For this she is in hurry. o To stay with the needy: Mary is taken up by the mystery of God’s action. She is aware that her cousin needs someone in this period. She does not haste. She moves out. She did not think of the distance. She did not worry of what she has to do. All that she is mindful of is this: to be with her cousin in the time of need. First of all, Mary is very watchful towards the need and this is seen also in the first miracle of Jesus at the wedding of Cana. Secondly, she is not only watchful but also acts immediately extending all the possible help from her part. That’s why she is in hurry. She knows well that the help, if not reached in time, is useless. She desires to stay with the needy. - Spirit is the causes the Old and New Testament interact:: There is another important moment in the Gospel. The interaction between Mary and Elizabeth. It is not for the first time that they are meeting. They are relatives. They must have already met number of times. Their greetings were normal in all the previous meetings. But today, the scene is quite different. When Mary has come to her house, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaims: “Blessed are you among woman and blessed is the fruit of your womb”. When Mary has noticed the joy of Elizabeth and the jump of the child in her womb, She is overwhelmed with tremendous joy and sings immediately “The Magnificat”. It is a different and extraordinary interaction between these two women. It is extraordinary because it is not an interaction between two women alone. Both of them signify something more. Elizabeth is “the end” of the Old Testament. Mary is “the beginning” of the New Testaments. The Old Testament embraces the New Testament. The New Testament comes to visit and fulfill the Old Testament. It is not only their sons – John the Baptist and Jesus – who made the mutual interaction between the Old and New possible but prior to them, already it is manifested in their mothers. What a wonderful moment. It is ONLY the HOLY SPIRIT who made this possible. Conclusion: We are empowered to view the things in the different mode - Let us observe and verify the ways: The first aspect, we are called to learn to observe well and verify the realities. The basic question we can pose ourselves is this: where does the Word of God, through the Scriptures and Church’s representation, is leading us to? Where does the World, with all its rapid developments, is leading us to? Do we really happy and content with the possession of worldly things? God’s word comes to us and embraces us profoundly. It invites us to the life of peace, joy and love. It helps and enables us to confront the material passions and fashions and to create a family of fraternity and solidarity. On the other hand, the world is growing higher and wider with its science and technology. Of course, such development manifests the capacity of human intelligence. But, there is also side by side a consequence. Man closes himself in pride and in selfishness. Either he is afraid of or of indifferent with others. If we are interested to talk about the spirit and if we expose lots of doubts on faith and God’s existence and interventions, we shall consider man’s existence itself. Enough we can find the difference. Man’s mental life is full of stress and fear. His physical life fluctuates with the unpredictable health. His social life is almost hindered because family ties are being easily broken and social injustice and inequalities are mounting up. We do not want to observe these things. We do not want to verify why this is taking place. We do not want to make a research for the human values. But we are very eager and hurry up to blame God when the things go wrong. This is not the human method. This is the human intelligence. Often, this is expression in human foolishness, negligence and partiality. The figure of Mary today calls us to verify the ways of God and the ways of the world. - Let us be in hurry to watch and to help the needy: The second we are called to learn is to be always available to watch and to help those who are in need. When the question of helping others come, there should never be a second thought. Jesus’ life is the best example. Mary’s is model as we see her in today’s gospel. Various saints we have as an inspiration for this kind of spiritual and personal availability for others. - Let us take inspiration from the past: We build our present on the experience of the Past. We lead our present with the hope of Good Future. There is a chain that links the different periods of life. Jesus is come and died, offered us salvation and gone. It is the past. Yet, it is the basis for our faith today. Many times we see it outdated and not sinking with the science. But we cannot neglect the spirit we have in our human nature. When we allow the past to inspire us we have lot of ways already prepared for us. We only have to look at them and walk in them. Then, we will be sure of our destiny. - Let us allow the Spirit to work in us: Finally, it is the Spirit who works. If we look at the things with the eyes of the Spirit, we can see in others, an image of God. Only then, we are capable of understanding them when they talk to us. Only then, we are capable of pardoning them if they do wrong against us. Only then, we are capable of embracing them with love. This is what we need to learn today. Let us allow the spirit to work in and through us.