Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 12
Reading I
Thus says the
LORD:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
and the rest of his kindred shall return
to the children of Israel.
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his
God;
and they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (4) Lord, make us turn
to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.’“
First he says, “Sacrifices and
offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in.”
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, :Behold, I come to do your will.”
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this “will,” we have been consecrated
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Today we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent. We are encouraged at this time to slowly start to shift our focus from the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and start to look forward to the great Solemnity which we are to celebrate very soon: The Birth of our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. Between then and now, there is still much to do and much to prepare for, but this should be done with expectation and not anxiety. God never wants us to feel anxiety, nor does He want us to have any fears. He wants us to feel His love and to love. This is why we are presented with The Fourth Candle of Advent, which represents love. “God so loved the word that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” The birth of Jesus Christ, the word becoming flesh, brings the previous quote from The Gospel of John to life. It is foundational in respect to our faith and we are asked to react to it physically, mentally, and spirituality. This gift that God has given to us brings love to the forefront of everything. Nothing else should ever take its place of importance in our life. It is our duty to construct all of our thoughts and actions around this fact.
It is healthy to ask ourselves that if God loves us so much that He chose to give the gift of His Son to us so that we might be saved and receive eternal life, why would we ever think that He would not make every effort to insure that we may achieve all of those things in our life which would bring us real joy while bringing us into a loving relationship with Him? It doesn’t make sense that this would not happen if we only let it happen. To do this we must get out of our own way and let God into our lives. We are the ones who bring hatred into the equation instead of love. We are the ones who bring sorrow instead of joy. We are the ones who bring conflict instead of peace. All these negative things are what God wants us to avoid. God wants us only to experience the good stuff. Yes, there are times when God will allow negativity, but only so that we may be forged and prepared to experience a higher goodness. It takes a certain reliance on God and a belief that we will always be in a better place with God in our lives, regardless of our circumstances, to open the floodgates of His love which will make everything better.
There are six days left until The Solemnity of The Nativity of the Lord. In the Secular World there is chaos. People are rushing about trying to prepare for the celebration. There are gifts to buy, gifts to wrap, cards to be mailed, and so many other plans to be made. Tempers are short and frustrations are many. This also becomes a time where there is great regret regarding relationships lost and failures that become more evident when compared to a certain festive atmosphere that we are told we should be feeling. The memories of loved ones who have died come flooding back as people remember their presence at celebrations of seasons past. God wants us to forget all of these things and focus on one thing: He loves us and wants us to love Him. With this simple adjustment, everything can fall into place and be as it should be. We are not perfect and God knows this. He wants to make us perfect but, to do this, we need to let Him love us and then love Him back. In the end, all that is negative doesn’t matter. The Love of God and what that brings it into our lives is the most important thing.
One of our biggest faults, brought upon by Original Sin, is that we want to control everything and be gods ourselves. Ripping our will back from God and trying to take control of our lives instead of surrendering to God is a common occurrence that we should look to avoid. With love comes trust. With trust comes a certain reliance on God which will both be healthy and productive for us. This is a week where God is telling us to relax and focus on all the positive things regardless of what negativisms we are being bombarded with. We will never live up to our own expectations, but God never wanted us to. To experience Him is to love Him and to allow ourselves to be loved.
I would like to share a personal story to emphasize this point. After Thanksgiving, I started to plan for The Season of Advent. There was a lot that I had to do. I was going to a Dinner and Movie gathering with The Knights of Columbus, going on retreat with my bishop, and I was going to a dinner with my AA Group, The Steel Shop Recovery Group. I was also planning to host a group of students from Boston College up at The Farm to introduce them to our community there. This was all to occur during the second and third week of Advent. Well, I contracted COVID 19 and I could not attend anything. I was yanked out of my ministry and put into quarantine for ten days. I could not do anything special at MCI Concord because I wasn’t there and COVID 19 locked down the whole prison. I could not be at The Farm. I couldn’t do anything, or at least I thought. The negative thoughts I was having was not where God wanted me to be. He did not want me to feel like a failure or beat myself up over this. As soon as I shifted to acceptance instead of resistance, I started to feel better. As soon as I gave everything up to God and focused on the other things I could do so as to deepen my relationship with God, I felt better. So what if I couldn’t do what I wanted to do during this time of isolation, I could always accept where I found myself and still love God. Just because what I wanted to do did not happen did not mean that the experiences I had and my relationship with God at the time wasn’t as important.
As soon as I started to let go of my pre-conceived notions of what Advent should be like and accepted what it was is when I started to feel better. I prayed and felt better. I let God love me and I felt better. I loved God through this and asked Him for His help. I then felt better. Saint Teresa had a famous saying that she lived by. When confronted with a difficult situation, she would smile and say, “Just pray.” God is telling us to, “Just love.” We are reminded of just that during this Fourth Sunday of Advent and The Christmas Joy which is to follow.
Deacon Tom
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