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.

SATURDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT - 2020

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Root of Jesse, set up as a sign to the peoples,
come to save us,
and delay no more.

JUDGES 13:2-7,24-25

My Soul's Beloved,

"Nothing is impossible with God." These are the words that the angel Gabriel said to Mary. It is an echo of  God's assurance through salvation history. He causes streams to flow in arid land and everything He touches teems with life, joy, and hope. Abraham's wife Sara was barren and bore Isaac when she was  90 years old. Rebekah was barren and Isaac pleaded with God to bless her with a child and she conceived Esau and Jacob. Rachel was barren and God had compassion on her and opened her womb and she bore Joseph and Benjamin. 

Today's first reading narrates how Manoah's wife was barren and an angel appeared to her and assured her that she would conceive a son, and she bore Samson. Hannah wept with great tears over her overwhelming sorrow at being barren and God blessed her with Samuel. And finally, we have Elizabeth, Zachariah's wife who was also barren. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him his prayers were had and Elizabeth would conceive in her old age and bear a son, John the Baptist.

Every one of the sons conceived in barren wombs was destined to accomplish God's work, to each was entrusted a mission for God's glory. Their mothers were women of great faith and their great faith in God was rewarded.

And the ultimate miracle of all - is the virgin birth the fruit of which brought salvation to the world. Truly, nothing is impossible with God.    

Manoah's wife gave birth to a son and called him Samson. The child grew, and the Lord blessed him; and the spirit of the Lord began to move him.

PSALM 71:3-6,16-17

My Soul's Beloved,

I am wicked and sinful because I am weak and frail, and without Your saving help fall I fall easily when beguiled by the temptation to sin.  This day I make the prayer of the psalmist my own.

 

Be a rock where I can take refuge,
a mighty stronghold to save me;
for you are my rock, my stronghold.

Keep my gaze fixed on You - for when I contemplate Your Face, my heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise for all You have done for me from the moment of my conception. If all my thoughts every moment of the day are thoughts of You then nothing will entice me to stray from the path of life.

Grant me this grace O Lord, that I will always turn to You who are my hope, my trust, and my help. Keep me always grateful, always aware of Your mighty help. May my mouth never cease to proclaim all the wonderful blessings You have showered on me. I do not deserve the least of Your favors yet You do not look at my wickedness with anger and disgust but with great compassion and tenderness. With every breath I breathe and to my last breath may I praise You for great goodness and mercy. 

LUKE 1:5-25

My Soul's Beloved,

Being barren in Old Testament times was seen as a curse and the result of sin, this is why the women who were unable to conceive were so terribly unhappy. 

Luke's gospel speaks at length about Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, the cousin of our blessed Mother. They both were worthy in the sight of God, and scrupulously observed all the commandments and observances of the Lord. They were childless and had prayed earnestly for years that God would take away this affliction from them, however, they were now both old when the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah while he was in the sanctuary burning incense. 

Finally, in answer to their anguished prayers, and at the time of God's choosing, the longed-for child would be conceived. Zechariah's response was disbelief, ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years.’ One can almost feel the terrifying, awe-inspiring presence of the angel filling the sanctuary as he responds sternly, ‘I am Gabriel who stand in God’s presence, and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news. Listen! Since you have not believed my words, which will come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced and have no power of speech until this has happened.’

One of the many wonderful promises God makes to Zechariah through Gabriel is this, 'Even from his mother’s womb he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.' This promise was fulfilled at the visitation when Mary visited her pregnant cousin Elizabeth and she exclaimed, "As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy."

The moment Zechariah wrote, ‘His name is John,’ his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. As for Elizabeth she withdrew for five months to contemplate God's goodness, and to exult and rejoice in silence at this wondrous thing God had done for her, ‘The Lord has done this for me’ she said ‘now that it has pleased him to take away the humiliation I suffered among men.’

Let us never ever doubt the power of God to do the impossible for nothing is ever impossible with God.