Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day

We draw close to the end of this season of expectation, this season of preparation, this season of waiting. For three weeks we have been anticipating that glorious day that is now just over the horizon. Let us break from all the hustle and bustle that threaten to overwhelm the true meaning of this holy event and share in the pure joy of Mary and Elizabeth, two mothers expecting their first children, who in today’s Gospel exult in each other’s blessedness.
 

Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word

Our anticipation of the Lord’s birth is mirrored in the words from scripture that we hear today. Micah, who lived eight centuries before Jesus was born, proclaims that a long-awaited ruler from the line of David will come from the little town of Bethlehem. The author of Hebrews asserts that Jesus was born into the world to be himself an offering according to the Father’s will. Luke tells the story of Mary visiting her older cousin Elizabeth, who, filled with the Holy Spirit, becomes the first to call her blessed. Filled with the Holy Spirit, let us focus our anticipation on God’s blessings.
 

Reflections

• Micah refers to Bethlehem as “too small to be among the clans of Judah,” pointing out its insignificance next to Judah and the other eleven tribes of Israel (Micah 5:1). Bethlehem was home to Jesse, father of eight sons, seven of whom were invited to a banquet with the prophet Samuel. But it was the youngest, David, overlooked even by his own father, who becomes king of Israel. The angel Gabriel was not sent to a renowned married woman of Jerusalem but to a poor, meek, seemingly inconsequent teenage woman in the distant town of Nazareth. Whether people or places, God has a tendency to choose the unlikely one. As God said to Samuel, “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Can we change our perspective and see the potential in someone or something we’ve overlooked?

• Along the same lines, sometime in the next week we are likely to hear the saying “The best things come in small packages.” Truly the most wonderful Christmas gift any of us have ever received was the gift of Jesus Christ, born from the womb of the young Blessed Virgin Mary over two thousand years ago. Besides Mary and Joseph, the first to receive this gift was her cousin Elizabeth, who breaks out of a five-month seclusion with shouts of joy and awe when Mary with a few-week-old fetus comes to visit.

• In the world that Mary and Elizabeth were born into, their people were subjected to foreign rule—yet again. Meanwhile, humanity was still held captive by sin. God’s presence on earth was limited to rare encounters on mountaintops. It is difficult to overstate how deeply the people longed for a messiah. Not just Mary, but all of us are blessed by God, who sent us the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, to be with us, to redeem us, and to stay with us forever.
 

Question of the Week

Whom can I visit this Christmas season, bearing Christ and bringing joy, whom I hadn’t planned to see?

-from Pastoral Patterns