FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
24 DECEMBER 2017
King
David has a pretty good idea. With
Jerusalem at peace, he lives comfortably in a house of cedar. The ark of God, which had preceded his
ancestors in the desert, is housed in a tent.
He wants to build the Lord a proper temple. Nathan the prophet also thinks that it is a
pretty good idea. However, Nathan
discovers in a dream that God’s plan is different. God does not want David to do something for
him. Instead, God is going to do
something for David. God reminds David of
what he has already done for him – lifting him from caring for sheep in
Bethlehem to leading a nation. Instead
of David building a house for God, God will establish a house for David. God promises that he will remain with the
house of David and make his house forever.
This is one of the Covenants portrayed in mosaic in the main aisle of
our church.
The kingly
line of David lasted for over 400 years, until the Babylonians ended the
dynasty with exile. When the people of
Israel returned from exile, they were not successful in restoring the Dynasty
of David. Instead, they kept track of
all who had been born into the same tribe that David had been born into. They never lost hope in the covenant made
with David.
In today’s
Gospel, we see the Covenant with David fulfilled in a way that no one could
ever have expected. The angel Gabriel
approaches an insignificant teenager betrothed to an insignificant carpenter
from David’s tribe in the insignificant village of Nazareth. The Angel asks Mary to become the mother of
the Messiah promised to David. Even
though Mary does not understand, she trusts the Angel’s assurance that the Holy
Spirit would overshadow her, as the spirit of God had overshadowed creation in
the beginning. She would become the Ark
of the Covenant, carrying the promised Messiah who is also the Son of God.
When Mary
says “yes,” she is responding to an invitation to enter into an infinite union
with an infinite God. She has three important attitudes that opened her to
enter into this union. First, she is
detached. She is willing to be detached
from the gossip of the neighbors and even the possibility of being stoned to
death because of her perceived adultery.
She trusts completely in God. She
has become the handmaid of the Lord.
Second, she knows that she cannot do this on her own. She trusts that all things are possible with
God. That trust enables her to say, “Be
it done to me according to your word.”
Third, she counts on God to help her through her upcoming ordeal, even
to standing at the foot of the cross when he is crucified. She trusts the Angel’s promise that the Lord
is with her and will not abandon her.
Those three
attitudes can serve us well as we prepare to celebrate Christmas tomorrow. Christmas invites each one of us to an
infinite union with an infinite God in the person of Jesus Christ. If we can detach ourselves from so many of
our concerns and worries, we can trust that our encounter with then newborn
Christ can have the power to change us in ways we might not expect. If we are humble enough to admit that we
cannot create the spirit of Christmas on our own, we open ourselves to trusting
that God will grace us with a love we can never earn. If we can count on God to help us in
celebrating the birth of his Son, we can grow in confidence that God will be
with us well beyond Christmas and throughout the New Year.
Saint Paul
speaks of the Mystery of the Incarnation in his Letter to the Romans. He tells them that the best response to this
Mystery is to be obedient. The root meaning
of the word “obedience” is “to listen.”
Mary listened carefully, detached herself, counted on God to help her,
and trusted that God is with her. Listen
carefully to the Christmas Mystery that we celebrate and imitate Mary’s
example.
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