Daily Reflection – Dec 23, 2018
Sunday 23 December 2018
First Reading: MI 5:1-4A
Responsorial Psalm:
Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
PS 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19.
Second Reading: HEB 10:5-10
Gospel Reading: LK 1:39-45
Today’s Note: Fourth Sunday of Advent
Gospel Reading:
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.”
Reflection:
Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. HEB 10:7
These are among the most important words in the Scriptures. They encapsulate the life and mission of Jesus sent to redeem and save us, and they encapsulate the life and mission of every Christian: to conform our human will to the divine will of God – from which everything else flows.
Echoing King David’s words (cf. Psalm 40:6-8), the author of Hebrews explains how it is not our offerings and sacrifices – as good and necessary as these are to help deepen our interior life of prayer and holiness – that are most pleasing to God, but our desire to do God’s Will and our obedience in following it. This is also one of the hardest things for the Christian to do, but paradoxically, only in doing so do we find our true happiness and lasting peace.
It is also why, as today’s Gospel reminds us, that Mary is blessed. She believed that the promise made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. She conformed her will to his, even when she did not understand it, and therein, discovered true blessedness. Before she could conceive Jesus in flesh in her womb, she first had to conceive him in faith in her heart. We, too, must first believe in faith even when we do not understand, before we can believe that Jesus, the man, is truly God – the only Saviour of the world.
Mary, our Mother, help us to believe as you did, that the promise made to us by the Lord will be fulfilled. Lord Jesus, open my eyes to see in you – the tiny, vulnerable Baby of Bethlehem – the true God and Saviour of the world who holds my life in your hands, Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. Amen.
