Fourth Sunday of Advent
Scripture:
Micah 5:1-4a
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45
Reflection:
During this Advent season, we have been reflecting on yearning for the coming of Jesus, opening our hearts to Him, and opening our hearts to each other. In our Gospel reading for this Sunday (Luke 1:39-45), we see the connection between hope and love in the interaction between Mary and Elizabeth.
Our Gospel reading begins just after the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she is to be the mother of the Messiah, and that her relative Elizabeth, considered too old and barren to conceive, is pregnant. After hearing all this and accepting God’s will, Luke tells us that Mary went “in haste” to see Elizabeth. We can imagine all the things running through Mary’s mind: to see how Elizabeth was doing, and to tell her what just happened with herself.
We can imagine the joy of the moment of their meeting! Both these women were going to bring new life into the world. They not only saw what this meant for themselves and for Zechariah and Joseph, but also for God’s plan of salvation.
There is a very old saying: “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” Mary and Elizabeth demonstrate this so well! And they demonstrate that where there’s hope, there’s love.
When there is hope, life is considered worth living. As I thought about Mary and Elizabeth giving birth to Jesus and John, I thought about babies still being born in Gaza and Israel and Ukraine and South Sudan and many other places where to have hope may be considered to be foolish.
Is it foolish to hope for justice and peace? Is it foolish to love as Jesus loves? It may be foolish in the eyes of the world, but if we have the faith of all the prophets and the people we have been hearing about during these weeks of Advent: Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth and John the Baptist; if we have the faith to trust in God’s love and God’s plan; if we have made room for Jesus in our hearts, we can still live in hope and in love, working for justice and peace.
And perhaps one step we can take is to consider what Elizabeth says to Mary into our own relationships with others and with the whole world. Elizabeth says to Mary: “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” What if every encounter we have with another person was accompanied with the thought: “How does this happen to me, that the beloved of my Lord should come to me?”
To paraphrase what Elizabeth also says to Mary: Blessed are we who believe that what has been spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled. Blessed are we who live in hope and dare to love.
Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama.