Advent 2005 – He Comes! The King of Glory

Sunday, December 18

Fourth Sunday of Advent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke: 1:26-38

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The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

December 18th

Fourth Saturday of Advent

When the Impossible Becomes Possible

“For nothing will be impossible for God.” These are the last words spoken by the angel Gabriel to Mary. They are the first words that we should remember at Christmas time. The birth of Jesus Christ brings the promise of new life. We receive two gifts. The first is that of forgiveness. The Incarnation of the Son of God destroys sin. Many believers find this traditional Christmas message difficult to accept. They see sin around them and recognize within themselves, if they are truthful, sin and its effects. The last words of the angel console the person who asks for the grace of forgiveness: “For nothing is impossible for God.”

The second gift that Christmas brings is that of friendship. The Incarnation of the Son of God restores us to divine friendship. Many believers do not understand that Christ makes us friends with God. Some have never enjoyed the kind of communication that distinguishes good friendship from other relationships, even legitimate ones like business partners. Others have been disappointed by those whom they once considered as friends. Still others have become so accustomed to isolation that they have forgotten that man is made for friendship.

God is my friend! What does that mean? The last words of the angel encourage the one who seeks the grace of friendship: “For nothing will be impossible for God.”

Father Romanus Cessario, O. P.

Loving Father, through the maternal mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary free my life from all doubt and desolation.

Monday, December 19

Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

Zechariah the Infant

Children accept miracles without question. They readily believe that God was born in a manger, visited by kings, serenaded by angels. They expect that the desires of their hearts will be fulfilled in wonderful ways.
In adults this openness often disappears. We become consumed with our own apparently insoluble problems. Like Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, we can become so hardened that even an angel from heaven can’t convince us of the power of God.
Zechariah served the Lord for years as a priest, and yet he and his wife were without children. Then, one day, God’s messenger appears to tell him that he would have a son who would be the greatest of the prophets. But Zechariah doubts. “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
For his lack of faith Zechariah is rendered mute until his son is born. But is not this “punishment” really a mercy? Zechariah returns, in a way, to his infancy. He cannot talk – but he can listen and look and wonder. And when his son is born, this wonder spills forth in a song of praise.
“The dawn from on high shall break upon us!” As we await the coming of the dawn, the birth of Christ, let us pray that we too may be filled anew with childlike wonder!

Reflection based on Luke 1:5-25
Lisa Lickona

Loving Father open me in every way to your power and let me live with the wonder of a child.

Tuesday, December 19

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent

From Another World

The Christian life begins with a fact, not an idea. It begins with something that happens at a particular place and moment. Prior to that event there is no Christianity. There are only the cries of the human heart for something that nothing in creation can satisfy, the cries of Advent.
What the human heart seeks has to come to this world from another world. When this happens, Christianity begins. This happened for the first time in the body of a young Jewish woman, Mary. The Jews were chosen by God to be the bearers of human hopes. Mary was the first to experience the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel, the promises of Advent.
Through her freedom, preserved from the wound of sin, the Salvation of the world became a child in her womb. The “other world” became a presence in this world. The cries of Advent gave way to the miracle of Christmas. What happened on the day of the Annunciation is meant to occur every day of our lives. This is Christianity’s fundamental claim.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Mary’s freedom, the salvation of the world – Jesus Christ – enters into the very structure of our human world.
It is good to begin every day reciting the “Angelus,” praying that what happened then will happen to us.

Reflection based on Luke 1:26-38
Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete

Loving Father let me live with certainty and hope before the fact of your Son.

Wednesday, December 21

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent

Why We Need the Visitation

One never tires of the freshness of the Visitation story. We continually grow in amazement at the humility, generosity, and self-forgetfulness of Mary who, pregnant with the Divine Child, went in haste through the hill country to assist her cousin Elizabeth. Two women, filled with the Holy Spirit, are in awe at life within. Two voiceless babies communicating through the voices of their mothers.
The babe in Elizabeth’s womb leapt in the first act of Eucharistic Adoration. How many times has this scene been reenacted by countless people meditating on the second joyful mystery of the rosary? Into a world made dark by sin, the Light springing from heaven is beginning to shed his rays through the “yes” which his Mother uttered even when she did not understand.
The child would be destined for the rise and fall of many because his Truth would pierce the darkness of ignorance and selfishness. Elizabeth felt one person’s response within her – the response of a joy which could hardly be contained.
The Visitation has captured the minds and hearts of writers, musicians, and artists throughout the ages. The Dominican artist, Blessed Fra Angelico, created light through paint in an effort to capture the mystical beauty of this moment which shattered the darkness.
O come, you Dayspring from on high, and cheer us by your drawing nigh; disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadow put to flight.”

Reflection based on Luke 1:39-45
Mother Assumpta Long

Loving Father, through the Blessed Virgin Mary visit my life with the life of your Son and make me new.

Thursday, December 22

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent

What Makes Us Sing

Mary’s “Magnificat” is well named – this canticle of humble praise released from the Mother who now carries the Incarnate Son in her womb. Elizabeth had just extolled Mary as she entered Elizabeth’s house. “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Mary in that moment must have grasped how overwhelmingly true were these words. It is as though she now tells Elizabeth, the blessedness I have received is greater than you can imagine, extending to all time, and I cannot fathom it: “For he has looked upon his lowly servant./ From this day all generations will call me blessed./ the Almighty has done great things for me,/ and holy is his Name.”
Mary’s prayer rises up from a keen sense of her poverty before God. She has been given a privilege beyond any other; she knows it, and the knowledge is utterly humbling. But this humility has a source as well in her total surrender of herself at the Annunciation. It is God’s way always to favor the soul that desires only his will, and indeed this is part of the secret of humility.
They are humble who are willing to place their lives entirely at God’s disposal. Mary’s whole life radiated this truth. Surely she encourages us to offer our own lowliness as a Christmas gift to her child.

Reflection based on Luke 1:46-56
Father Donald Haggerty

Loving Father, make my life a Magnificat of praise in gratitude for the unfathomable blessings you work in my life.

Saturday, December 24

Christmas Eve

Absurd Affection

“To give his people knowledge of salvation/ but the forgiveness of their sins.”
Zechariahs mentions Abraham, so many of whose heralded descendants were disappointments and sinners. Zechariah mentions David, a great king and also a great sinner, the father of a long line of kings who forgot God, many of whom sinned without repenting. Zechariah mentions the prophets, who were sent to encourage people who were downtrodden, victimized by the sins of others, and lost in their own sins.
Zechariah also speaks of a holy covenant remembered by God. God remembered his covenant even when we forgot. The dawn from on high, the Word Become Flesh, Jesus Christ is not something anyone deserved. God become man is more than any of us sinners could have imagined or dared to ask for. He is a gift. The Gift.
God the Father expects nothing from us but our acceptance of this super-abundant, over-the-top, uncalled for, absurdly and affectionately generous gift. Paradoxically, the more unworthy we know ourselves to be, the more we are able to understand and appreciate the greatness of this gift. For salvation is made known to us by the forgiveness of our sins. Won’t you accept?

Reflection based on Luke 1:67-79
Father Richard Veras

Loving Father, I am completely unworthy of the Gift of your Son, but I believe you want to give him to me. Forgive my sins and make me ready for Christmas.

Sunday, December 25

Christmas

Infinite Longing

The Psalmist cries, “Lord, incline your heavens and come” (Ps 144:5). The prophet Isaiah begs: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down” (Is 63:19). The author of the Book of Wisdom implores: “Send [divine Wisdom] forth from your holy heavens/ and from your glorious throne dispatch her/ That she may be with me and work with me” (Wis 9:10).
All this expressed our longing for the Incarnate Presence of the Infinite who alone can fill our lives with meaning. For nothing but the Infinite can suffice to satisfy the infinite desires that consume our hearts. We live like little children with upraised arms, awaiting a grownup to stoop down and lift us up out of our loneliness, misery, fears.
In our hearts we clamor now for what Christ will later command – we plead: “Unless you become like a little child, we will not enter heaven!” And we need God to come to earth in this way that we are right now: like a helpless, tiny child. Behold: he does!
The angel proclaims “You will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes” (Lk 2:12). “In my distress I called out: Lord… My cry to him reached his ears…/ He parted the heavens and came down” (Ps 18:7-10. Blessed Christmas

Father Peter John Cameron O. P.

Loving Father, thank you for the gift of the birth of your Son. Let my life be lived in perfect obedience to Jesus, my heart’s desire.

For unto us, a Child is born,
unto us, a Son is given .....

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