Hail, O Favoured One, the Lord Is with You!
Introduction: May you continue to reflect on the
mystery of Christmas – the mystery of the Incarnation – and may that lead you
to joyfully accept the Good News and live it out in your life.
As we draw ever
closer to the celebration of Christmas, we are called to reflect on what it
means that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It is not just a story of the birth of
a baby to a woman who lived 2000 years ago. It is the fact that GOD has become
human. GOD shares our very existence as a mortal. Yet the purpose of His
sharing our life is so that we can share in the divine life of GOD.
This
afternoon/evening we can celebrate the Christmas Vigil liturgy with its
readings. As the day changes from December 24 to December 25, we have the
liturgy of Midnight Mass. In the morning will be Mass at Dawn. There is also a
Mass during the Day. Each set of readings focuses on different aspects of the
Son of GOD, Jesus, taking on human flesh in His human birth.
As we approach
the celebration of the birth of Jesus which begins this evening, December 24,
we are reminded of one of the essential truths of the nativity and all
Christianity: Jesus is truly GOD and truly human. In the passage from 2 Samuel,
GOD promises to raise up a Mighty One from the household of David and allow
David’s descendants to reign eternally. This proclaims that the Messiah would
be a human of the line of David. The psalm is a bridge between talking about
the humanity of the Messiah, and also the divinity of the Messiah. It proclaims
that one of David’s offspring will be the Son of GOD and GOD will be to this
Chosen One and Abba-Father (that was also mentioned in the First Reading). In
our Second Reading, St. Paul comes to the end of his letter to the Romans and
continues the praise of GOD (which was mentioned in the psalm) by thanking GOD
for the revelation of, and in, Jesus. The Gospel today celebrates the moment of
the incarnation of GOD. As Mary agrees to GOD’s plan, the Eternal Word of GOD
is conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit.
First Reading 2 Samuel 7:1-5,8-12,14,16
Your House and your sovereignty will always stand secure before me
Commentary: This is a skilfully abbreviated version
of God’s promise to David. When David is nicely established in his kingship and
his fine house, he thinks he will patronize the Lord by building him a fine house.
To which the Lord replies that a human being does not build a house for God; rather,
God builds a house for David.
Responsorial Psalm 89:2-5,27,29
I will sing forever of your love, O Lord.
Commentary: Psalm 89 expresses confidence in God's
everlasting covenant with David, emphasizing the themes of steadfast love, faithfulness,
and the eternal establishment of David's throne through his descendants. The psalm
holds a Messianic undertone, pointing towards the ultimate fulfillment of these
promises in the person of Jesus Christ.
Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27
The mystery is revealed that was kept secret for endless ages
Commentary: This reading
gives the final cry of excitement and triumph at the end of Paul’s great letter
to the Christians of Rome. His task is to reveal to the nations (not just to the
Jews) God’s secret plan, which has been brewing all through human history and now
comes to its climax in Christ. This is the ‘mystery’ that God has finally revealed
in Christ, for a ‘mystery’ is a sacred reality revealed only at the end of time.
God has offered his friendship and his divine wisdom in Christ. Human beings respond
with the ‘obedience of faith’, a keyword of the letter: we need only trust God’s
promises for all our weaknesses to be buried under God’s glory. All we need to do
in this obedience of faith is to hang on to God’s promises by our fingertips in
our acceptance of God’s promised help. Our celebration of Christmas is not just
of a baby born at Bethlehem. It is of the climax of God’s design for the world,
the keystone of history. So we do not simply look back on it as a great event. Christians
must see it as the anchor of God’s design for the whole of history and for each
day.
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
'I am the handmaid of the Lord'
Commentary: What was the young girl Mary doing when
the message came? Kneeling piously? Feeding the sheep? Fetching water? Sweeping
the mud floor? What was she thinking? Engaged to be married, surely about her approaching
wedding to Joseph and about the children she would mother. Then came the message
that she could accept or refuse, the message on which hung the future of the world:
her child would be different from all others. How ‘different’? Her thoughts were
turned back to the promise to David. It had been read to her so often in the Bible,
and now the words were drummed into her mind, ‘his reign will have no end’. This
would all be the work of the Spirit which she had so often heard read out in Isaiah;
‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you’, the Spirit which was to come upon the Servant
of the Lord, the Spirit of Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. Her young body was to grow,
nourish, and develop this child. Then she would have the child in her arms to cherish
and shape as both Son of God and her own son.
Reflection: Does the proclamation of the Gospel
message fill you with joy and hope? When the Lord comes to redeem his people he
fills us with his Holy Spirit, the source of our joy and hope in the promises
of God When God made a covenant with David as King over Israel he made a
promise to David and his descendants that David's dynasty would endure forever
through the coming of the Messiah King (2 Samuel 7:16). This King would
establish an everlasting kingdom of peace and security for his people. We often
think of peace as the absence of trouble. The peace that the Messiah brings
cancels the debt of sin and restores our broken relationship with God our
heavenly Father.
The new era of salvation begins
with the conception and birth of Jesus
We see the
fulfillment of God's unfolding plan of redemption in the events leading up to
the Incarnation, the birth of the Messiah King. The new era of salvation begins
with the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. This child to be
born is conceived by the gracious action of the Holy Spirit upon Mary, who
finds favor with God (Luke 1:28). This child will be "great" and
"Son of the Most High" and "King," and his name shall be
called "Jesus" (Luke 1:31-32), which means "the Lord
saves." "He will save his people from their sins" (Matthew
1:21). The angel repeats to Mary, the daughter of the house of David, the
promise made to King David: "The Lord God will give to him the throne of
his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom, there will be no end" (2 Samuel 7:12-16, Isaiah 9:6-7, Luke
1:32-33).
Mary is a true hearer of the
Word of God
How does Mary
respond to the word of God delivered by the angel Gabriel? She knows she is
hearing something beyond human capability. It will surely take a miracle that
surpasses all that God has done previously. Her question, "How shall this
be, since I have no husband" is not prompted by doubt or skepticism, but
by wonderment! She is a true hearer of the Word, and she immediately responds
with faith and trust.
Mary's prompt
response of "yes" to the divine message is a model of faith for all
believers. Mary believed God's promises even when they seemed impossible. She
was full of grace because she trusted that what God said was true and would be
fulfilled. She was willing and eager to do God's will, even if it seemed
difficult or costly. Mary is the "mother of God" because God becomes
incarnate when he takes on flesh in her womb. When we pray the Nicene Creed, we
state our confession of faith in this great mystery: "For us men and for
our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he
became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man".
God gives us
the grace to say "yes" to his will and to his transforming work in
our lives
What is the key
that unlocks the power and grace of God's kingdom in our personal lives? Faith
and obedience for sure! God gives us grace and he expects us to respond with
the same willing obedience and heartfelt trust as Mary did. When God commands,
he also gives the help and means to respond. We can either yield to his grace
or resist and go our own way. Do you believe in God's promises, and do you
yield to his grace?
Heavenly
Father, you offer us abundant grace, mercy, and forgiveness through your Son, Our
Lord Jesus Christ. Help me to live a grace-filled life as Mary did by believing
in your promises and by giving you my unqualified 'yes' to your will and plan
for my life.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Jesus is Son of God and Son of Mary, by Bede the
Venerable, 672-735 A.D.
"We should
carefully note the order of the words here, and the more firmly they are
engrafted in our heart, the more evident it will be that the sum total of our
redemption consists in them. For they proclaim with perfect clarity that the
Lord Jesus, that is, our Savior, was both the true Son of God the Father and
the true Son of a mother who was a human being. 'Behold,' he says, 'you will
conceive in your womb and give birth to a son' - acknowledge that this true
human being assumed the true substance of flesh from the flesh of the Virgin!
'He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High' - confess too
that this same Son is true God of true God, co-eternal Son forever of the
eternal Father!" (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.3.22)
A “MARY,” MERRY CHRISTMAS
“Mary said to the
angel, ‘How can this be...?’ ” —Luke 1:34
To have a true Christmas,
to meet Christ at Mass in a new, glorious way during the Christmas season, we must
have a “Mary” Christmas and love Jesus as Mary does. To have a “Mary” Christmas,
we should:
·
not fear (Lk 1:30),
·
be filled with God’s grace (Lk 1:30),
·
have “the Holy Spirit...come upon” us (Lk 1:35),
·
believe that “nothing is impossible with God” (Lk 1:37),
·
rejoice in being the Lord’s servants, that is, the
slaves of the Lord (Lk 1:38),
·
“let it be done” to us according to God’s Word (Lk 1:38),
·
trust “that the Lord’s words” to us will “be fulfilled”
(Lk 1:45),
·
proclaim “the greatness of the Lord” and find “joy
in God” our Savior (Lk 1:46-47),
·
“be pierced with a sword” of sorrow (Lk 2:35),
·
“do whatever [Jesus] tells” us and tell others to
do the same (Jn 2:5),
·
be at the foot of Jesus’ cross (Jn 19:25), and
·
together devote ourselves to constant prayer for
a new Pentecost (Acts 1:14).
A “Mary” Christmas
is a Christmas of faith, joy, self-sacrifice, obedience, evangelistic zeal, redemptive
suffering, praise-filled worship, and constant prayer in the Holy Spirit.
“Mary” Christmas!
Prayer: Jesus, may You get what You want for Christmas.
“The favors of the Lord I will sing forever; through all generations, my mouth shall
proclaim Your faithfulness.” —Ps 89:2. “Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel because He
has visited and ransomed His people” (Lk 1:68).
The personal action for today: What does the
Incarnation (GOD taking on human flesh) mean to me? What aspect of the
Incarnation is most powerful in my contemplation? What difference does the Son
of GOD's becoming human mean to my life? How can I bring the Good News to
others of the fact that GOD loves us enough to become one of us so that we can
share more fully in the life of GOD?