Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

The feast of Christ­mas is just at the corner. This Sunday Gos­pel read­ing under­lines the joy that will accom­pany the memori­al of the birth of the Mes­si­ah. Mary’s vis­it to Eliza­beth is an indic­a­tion that God main­tains his prom­ises. The moth­er of the Mes­si­ah, with the Immanu’el (God with us) in her womb, vis­its the moth­er of the fore­run­ner of the Mes­si­ah, with the fore­run­ner still in her womb. We can ima­gine the joy of the meet­ing of the moth­ers of these two great per­son­al­it­ies. The two moth­ers have all received favour from God. Mary has been favoured and par­tic­u­larly chosen and pre­pared by God through the Holy Spir­it. On the hand, Eliza­beth has also been favoured by God by break­ing the yoke of her infer­til­ity. Both have ser­i­ous cause to be grate­ful to God. Jesus, the peace of the Lord him­self, will gath­er togeth­er the chil­dren of God who have been scattered and shattered by sin (cf. First Read­ing). Jesus has come to do the will of God. Jesus is God’s response to (cf. Second Reading).

Mary visits Elizabeth

“In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill coun­try, where she entered the house of Zechari­ah and greeted Eliza­beth” (Luke 1:39–40). Why did Mary vis­it Eliza­beth? The reas­on is found in the encounter of Mary and the Angel Gab­ri­el. Luke reports that the Angel of the Lord vis­ited Mary at Naz­areth, a town in Galilee. The motive of the vis­it was to inform the lad that the Lord has found favour in her. She was to con­ceive through the power of the Holy Spir­it and will bear a child who will be called Yeshua. When Mary wondered how this could work out since she is not yet mar­ried, the Angel assured her that God has taken care of everything. More so, to assure her that God works in ways bey­ond human expect­a­tion, the Angel informed Mary that even her cous­in Eliza­beth, who was said to be bar­ren has con­ceived and is in her sixth month of preg­nancy. After these words, Mary pro­nounced the Fiat – Behold, I am the hand­maid of the Lord, let be done to me accord­ing to your word (cf. Luke 1:38). It was after this sur­ren­der­ing to the divine decision that Mary took off to see Eliza­beth who accord­ing to the Angel, has con­ceived and is in her sixth month.

Conclusion

This is the Last Sunday before Christ­mas, the memori­al of the birth of Jesus, the saviour. Christ­mas is a sea­son and an oppor­tun­ity to reflect on the val­ues, which we have releg­ated to the back­ground. While people have trans­formed Christ­mas into a peri­od of waste, unjust profit, acquis­i­tion, death, buy­ing and selling, wealth accu­mu­la­tion, hik­ing of price of goods, cheat­ing, the Gos­pel keeps remind­ing us of the essen­tial and essence of Christ­mas. Cer­tainly, the memori­al of the birth of the saviour calls for jubil­a­tion and mer­ri­ment, but we should not for­get that such jubil­a­tion and feast­ing should fol­low our hav­ing fully under­stood the true sig­ni­fic­ance of Christ­mas. Our jubil­a­tion, cel­eb­ra­tion, vis­its, dress­ings, eat­ing and drink­ing must have theo­lo­gic­al sig­ni­fic­ance, else, they remain mere and empty celebrations. 

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 4^th Sunday of Advent © is found in vol. III pages 34–41. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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