Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 11
Reading 1
When King David was settled in his palace,
and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side,
he said to Nathan the prophet,
“Here I am living in a house of cedar,
while the ark of God dwells in a tent!”
Nathan answered the king,
“Go, do whatever you have in mind,
for the LORD is with you.”
But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:
“Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD:
Should you build me a house to dwell in?’“
"'It was I who took you from the pasture
and from the care of the flock
to be commander of my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you went,
and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.
And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.
I will fix a place for my people Israel;
I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place
without further disturbance.
Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old,
since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel.
I will give you rest from all your enemies.
The LORD also reveals to you
that he will establish a house for you.
And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his kingdom firm.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.
Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me;
your throne shall stand firm forever.'”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”;
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For
ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”
R. For
ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.’
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.”
R. For
ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
To him who can strengthen you,
according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages
but now manifested through the prophetic writings and,
according to the command of the eternal God,
made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith,
to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ
be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Gospel
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
MY BROTHER AND SISTERS,
The Advent Wreath is ablaze with light! The light shines forth from the wreath out into the world and all of God’s creation. This Fourth Sunday represents that which cannot ever be defeated by the darkness: LOVE. All that has come before, all that is now, and all that will ever be has been brought forth by God by His eternal love for us which revealed fully by the entrance of His beloved Son into this world as a sacrifice for our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins. This love for us defines what our relationship with God should be built upon. The Apostle Paul said it best in his Letter to the Corinthians:
“So faith, hope, love remain, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”
If God did not love us then we would have never been created. If God did not love us then we would have never been given the opportunity to repair our relationship with Him and experience the love He has for us now and throughout eternity. It is no mistake that the Fourth Advent Candle represents Love because it is through Love that Hope, Peace, and Joy are fully realized. Each of these previous concepts is brought to perfection through the practice and experience of Love.
When we do not practice love or experience love there is a darkness that creeps forward to fill the void which was created by its lack of presence. When there is no presence of love is when the perchance of sin and evil gain strength. Love is perfection. Any other emotion is inferior to this because the perfection of love is God Himself. If we take a moment to contemplate all the bad things that have happened and continue to happen in the world there is one constant which defines all of it: the lack of love. All these things lose their power when confronted with love. In the same way, when we love, it is impossible for us to sin and do bad things in that moment.
The love that we express in our thoughts and actions is a reflection of the love that God has for us. It is also representative of God Himself. Being a reflection of God’s love means it is indeed less powerful than God but it still retains His presence because it has its origins in Him. We are an imperfect vehicle for the perfect but, in an amazing way, we are made better by its presence. We are transformed by it being there and us reacting to it. We benefit from it and those who are the receivers of the actions and expressions produced from it also benefit. In other words all are benefactors of love and no one is left out of the equation. God is love and love is God. You cannot separate the two. This is why, when challenged by Pharisees regarding the greatest commandment of the law, Jesus said:
“ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these commandments.”
These words cannot be overstated. The whole law and the prophets depend on these commandments. The entire law and the words of the prophets came from God thus their origins are love. They cannot be separated from love. Without love they would not exist. If we do not love and if we cannot be open to being loved then we are separated from God. This is when we sin and only bad things happen. Love is the pathway to God.
The Gospel Reading today describes the Incarnation: The Word becoming flesh; Jesus’ physical entrance into the world. It serves as a statement and an expression of God’s perfect love for us. The Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary rises her to the highest of heights in comparison to all men and women who came before her and all of the heavenly creatures: “ HAIL, FULL OF GRACE!” She was in a state of perfect grace untainted by Original Sin. This was brought about by the presence of God and was not of Mary’s doing. Her reaction to the presence of God’s love brought her to acceptance of what was being offered to her: “May it be done to me according to your word.” God’s love brings Mary to perfection and then she expresses love by accepting what is being offered out of love. God offers us love and asks us to live out the presence of His love by doing everyone out of love and with love.
Whatever doubts and fears that Mary had were immediately dispelled by what Gabriel had to say when she challenged him.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
The Trinity was at work within Mary and she was in active in relationship with it. She was at its center and experiencing the love that permeated from it. Through that relationship no doubt and no questions could remain. Through our own relationship with God we can also experience the same result because nothing is impossible with God. Mary becomes the perfect model of what a relationship with God can bring about. It is through God that we too can be strengthened and be able to do things above and beyond any expectations that we might have had. God’s work within us can slowly bring us to perfection which will finally be achieved when we meet Him face to face. God wants to the do the work within ourselves that we are unable to do alone. He wants to remain within us forever. In order for Him to do this we must be like Mary and mirror the words of that beautiful prayer that we all are familiar with: “Thy will be done.” It is then that His love will pour in.
Deacon Tom
Deacon Tom,
I was reflecting on how much I miss the Advent retreat at the prison. Please let everyone know I am thinking of them and praying for them. And you of course! Hoping things will return to normal next year. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Love,
Pam
My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
It is God who builds the house! It is God who sends the Savior! It is God who comes to Mary and through Mary gives us the Savior. All comes from God and all returns to God, but the present is the important time because it is now that God and humans are in relationship.
The first reading today is from the Second Book of Samuel. What a wonderful account of David and of David’s desire to build a house for the Lord! The point of this account, however, is that all of us must recognize that God is the center of life and not us. At one level we can do nothing for God.
That should not stop us from trying to do everything for God! Even though all we have comes from God, we can still return His love by striving to live for Him and striving to be faithful to all that He asks of us. This is a normal, natural response to knowing the love of God.
The second reading today comes from the Letter to the Romans and speaks of the mystery of salvation now being revealed. Only when we believe in a personal God who loves us does any “plan of God” make sense. Sure God does not have to “plan” the way that we humans do, but God always has our good in His mind and is working to bring about His goodness and love within us. Part of the “plan” of God was sending His Only Son to save us from ourselves.
Today, many people do not believe in God or in salvation. On the other hand, if we look around our world at any time in history—if we look today—we see what a mess we humans make of our lives. In the 1900s there was a large movement that believed that we humans could make everything better and perfect. That kind of thinking is still around us in those who are convinced that our problems come from political systems or from economic systems or from other causes. There is practically no recognition today that our problems come from our fallen human nature and that we humans, by ourselves, are unable to fix ourselves and are in need of salvation.
The Gospel from Saint Luke today presents us with Mary saying “yes” to God’s invitation in her life. This is the dawn of our salvation! Only in Jesus the Savior will our world ever be at peace. Only in Jesus as Lord will nations be able to work together. Only with Jesus at the heart of our own personal lives can we truly serve the Lord in Spirit and Truth.
May God build our house, our Church, our country and our world—and with that hope we await the coming of the Lord!
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
Just listening to the readings, we know that we are very close to the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus. The first reading is so very beautiful and one that all of us should know and keep in our hearts.
So often we are like David: we want to do something for God and we have not really understood all that He has done and is doing for us. The image of God in this reading is so sweet and tender and powerful!
David is now established as king in Israel and his thoughts turn to God. He realizes that he has built all his own physical houses and built up the city but he has not yet built a place that is truly adequate and worthy of the Lord’s presence. Nathan the Prophet, almost without thinking, tells him to go ahead and build a house for the Lord. But that very night the Lord appears to Nathan the Prophet and tells him that David should not build a house for the Lord.
God has Nathan speak to David and tell him: You can’t build me a house! I have built you a house!
This is a play on words and we must recognize it, because the house that God builds for David and which is so important is the house of his descendants: your house and your kingdom shall endure forever!
So we see today another prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. Our first instinct, as was David’s first instinct, is to think that the physical descendants of King David will endure forever. But like all prophecies, the words can be interpreted in more than one way. David’s house endures forever because Jesus Christ is God.
This leads us to today’s Gospel. We have the story of the annunciation. Mary hears the words of the Angel Gabriel and accepts them, but also asks how it could be possible. The high point of the Gospel, of course, is Mary’s reply: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
We see the contrast with David the King! David wants to do something for God—and that is a worthy desire. Mary simply wants to do God’s will. And that is something infinitely more worthy.
As we come to the end of Advent, we can ask for this same grace that Mary had: May it be done according to your word! May my life reflect only God. May my desires be purified so that I can become a person who truly reflects God in every aspect of my life. May Christ be born in me.
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