FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT - 2020

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the handmaid of the Lord:

let what you have said be done to me. LK 1:38

2 SAMUEL 7:1-5,8-12,14,16

My Soul's Beloved,

Sometimes, like David, we might truly believe that the time is right to undertake some life-changing project. All who we respect and admire encourage us to go ahead, just as the prophet Nathan encouraged David, saying to him, ‘Go and do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you.’  And yet, we will be quite mistaken - for God's plans, God's thoughts, God's ways are not always ours - they are so much bigger, so much higher, far beyond anything we can conceive or imagine.

In moments like these, it is wise to set aside our dearest dreams, our life's ambitions, and embrace Your will and Your plan for our lives. Nothing we conceive can ever repay what God had done for us as David thought to do, so He rightly reminds him, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep. All the wonderful things that David accomplished were God's work, doing for him what he could never do himself.

David was not chosen to build the splendid Temple where God would stoop low to enter and fill with His Presence, rather, He chose his son, Solomon, to do so.

All the promises that God made to David with regard to his reign and his heirs after him were to be fulfilled many centuries after Solomon, when a young Virgin said, 'Yes, may it be done to me according to Your Word.' She became the Ark of God, the radiant Temple. Immensity became tiny enough to enter her womb, to receive His Body from her, and from that time and forevermore, God became Jesus, one who saves, God became Christ, the anointed of the Lord, He became Emmanuel, God with us.

PSALM 89:2-5,27,29

My Soul's Beloved,

All who know You sing of Your love - it is a song that was silenced at the fall and was resumed with great exultation when Your Virgin Mother conceived You in her womb. It is a song sung through the ages and into eternity. It is a love song proclaiming the mind-boggling truth on earth and in the heavens that Love took on flesh and dwells among us. 

Every Covenant God made beginning with Adam and Eve is fulfilled in the last and final Covenant He made with us - You, His Son, our Lord, and our God. You are God's covenantal love with His children, You are our Song of Praise to the Father, You are our eternal blessing. You are God with us now and beyond time and space.

You, Beloved, are the reason we dare to call God, 'Abba.' You are the Rock, our stronghold, our foundation, and all who cleave to You are destined to share Your glory.

ROMANS 16:25-27

My Soul's Beloved,

The glorious secret that was lost at Adam's fall is revealed anew and proclaimed from the rooftops - God is with us.  The angel of the Lord chose to announce this news of glad tidings to poor shepherds in the field, 'I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.'

St. Paul says it well in his letter to the Romans, You are the revelation of the secret, sacred mystery, not only to the chosen people of God but to the whole world and for all generations to come. You are the fulfillment of every Covenant God entered into with us since the dawn of creation. You are indeed Good News and all who believe in You are entrusted with the sacred mission to make You known to the whole world so all can believe and be saved. This is the will of God concerning You, 'There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.’

LUKE 1:26-38

My Soul's Beloved,

The first verse of the passage taken from Luke's Gospel for our reflection sets the stage for the most dramatic encounter between heaven and earth when the angel Gabriel comes to the Virgin Mary with a divine proposal. She is the betrothed of Joseph who belongs to the House of David. Already we receive a hint of the fulfillment of a prophecy concerning the 'One who is to come,' who would also be called, 'Son of David.'

The Messenger of God greets her with these words that are sweetly familiar to all who pray Mary's favorite prayer, the Holy Rosary, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.' We are told that Mary was deeply disturbed by these words, and characteristically of her, she wondered in her heart what the angel meant by addressing her with such extravagant praise. He reassures her, saying, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor.' And then He goes on to convey the whole message of God's plan of salvation in which she is chosen to play the pivotal role - to realize that plan God waits in respectful silence for her answer. God and heaven hold their breath for her response while she tries to comprehend what it all means, the whole plan now hinges on her response. 

The angel lays out the divine strategy, 'Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and his reign will have no end.’ 

Sounds like an awesome plan to Mary only there is one hitch, and she wonders how he failed to recognize it, so she says, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ And then we hear a divine explosion that will reverberate until time shall cease and forever, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.' Wow! No one but God would have the temerity to conceive such a plan. 

The angel then shares another wonderful secret with her,  'Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ 

After this secondary revelation, Mary, true to her nature, says quietly, reverently, sweetly, humbly, and obediently, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her in order that God could fulfill the promise He made eons ago in collaboration with the Woman He chose eons ago when He said to Satan, 'I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel,’ and she conceived You, the reason for this joyous season of Christmas.