Fourth Sunday of Advent

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YR C

Embodying the Sacred Word of the Father

Micah 5:2-5; Ps 80:2-3, 15-16,18-19; Heb 10:5-10; Lk 1:39-45

So we begin to meditate on the fourth Sunday of Advent with the Gospel of Luke Chapter 1. Mary set out and went as quickly as she could because now Mary is filled with the Holy Spirit. She has said yes to the word of the angel in the Annunciation and is filled with the Holy Spirit and the power of God. She now goes as quickly as she can, to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who has been suffering from barrenness and is now in her sixth month and with a child.

And so Elizabeth goes out in haste in the proclamation of the word, filled with the word and filled with the Holy Spirit in her own consent. She went into Elizabeth’s house, Zechariah’s house, and as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s grieving, the child in her womb leapt in recognition from the womb and she cried out, “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? From the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.” So first of all, Mary, filled with the light and glory of the word and her consent, is recognised by the child in the womb but also recognised by Elizabeth.

And Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is entirely at work in the work of the Annunciation. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord, Elizabeth proclaimed. And Saint Teresa picks up the same idea talking about Carmelite prayer, that we are aware of who we are as creatures and who God is. Why should I be honoured with a visit, with the power of the Incarnation happening in me? And that’s exactly what the Gospel is proclaiming. This Incarnation, the power of the Holy Spirit enfolding Mary, now passed on to Elizabeth generously, she is filled with the Spirit and the child, the life in her, responds to it.

So too this Christmas, each of us must respond to this inner life, to the work of the Holy Spirit in us, quickening by the word of God, responding to the words of the angel in our lives. We too, this Incarnation can happen to us. “Blessed is she who believes that the promise made to her by the Lord will be fulfilled.”

Echoing the first reading, “You Bethlehem Ephrathah, least of the clans of Judah, out of you will be born for me the one who shall rule my people Israel.” At the closure to this reading it reads, “he himself will be peace.”. So peace in the Sacred Scripture is not a theory, it is a person. It is a person of Christ. And peace comes to us in the Incarnation in the body of the Lord. Embodying this.

And the second reading, from a letter to the Hebrews, reads – “a body you have prepared for me, behold I come to do your will.” Each of our bodies, each of us in our human lives is invited in to give our own consent in our lives, in our body to the Lord.

In the Responsorial Psalm, this joy of the shepherd of Israel, pray from this place of the shepherd, asking him to shepherd us into the Incarnation which we await with joy. It’s the call of every Carmelite to enter into the silence of a silent night, a holy night. “All is calm and all is bright. Round young virgin, mother and child.” And out of the solitude of Carmelite prayer on the mountain, the tradition of prayer out of which we come. And from this monastery, we pray and offer our Christmas Masses, a deep prayer for all of you who enter into the Word of God, into the Scriptures this time.

Let the Word become flesh in you!

Let this infant be born in you. And let that deep recognition and identification with the Word happen in you in silence. Take some time in silence with the sacred Word. It is the place of your fulfilment. It is the place of a blessed and holy Christmas.