22 December 2024 – 4th Sunday of Advent (Year C)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

There is only a few more days left towards Christmas and I am not sure what kind of emotions that is running through your minds or what kind of preparations that you need to do that is filling your minds during these few days towards Christmas.

Excitement? Worry? Anxiety? Perhaps you should ask that question yourselves.

And as you know as we prepare ourselves towards Christmas, the question would be to ask:
What are we preparing for?
Why are we preparing for that day?
What are we preparing it for?

And the Gospel today gives us this beautiful image of Mary visiting Elizabeth. A moment of visitation, a moment where Elizabeth’s knowledge of God is reawakened, that God’s presence reawaken not only in her life but also the child in her womb. And that experience of God is reawaken, she cried aloud and said:
Of all women, you are the most blessed. And blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?

And here, dear friends, we look at this moment of visitation. It is not a mere moment of arrival where you come, you prepare yourself all towards that particular point of perhaps getting home and after that what happens?

But the invitation of Christmas or Advent is to prepare your heart for the coming of Jesus and to reawaken within your hearts who is present among you. And that is why God, Emmanuel, God’s presence within us must continue to resonate with our lives. That in every circumstances and every situations of life, God makes Himself present with us.

And as I was reflecting on all the experiences of people, perhaps some of you go towards your family, perhaps in your kampungs, to bring yourself towards your family so that you can celebrate together. And some of you come back so that you are able to bring with you your presence and to allow the celebration of Christmas to be joyful.

And on the other hand, there are so many people who have perhaps nothing to do during this Christmas. And how we bringing that greetings of joy towards them. And it is a time, dear friends, that we re-examine ourselves and to see how have we prepared ourselves for the coming of Jesus.

And as we look at the Gospel today, we are reminded that Mary in her nothingness, when she received the invitation by the Angel Gabriel, that she was to be the mother of God, she received, accepted that invitation from that Angel, conceived what is in her, bear her Son and after that what she did was she went with haste towards her cousin, Elizabeth, to spend time with her.

And here we see, dear friends, the greetings of the Angel, the greetings of the invitation that God has given to her through the angel make her open her heart to embrace her mission and after embracing her mission, she went immediately to share the Good News to Elizabeth. And when she reached her cousin Elizabeth, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy. And there, Elizabeth cries out and says:
Of all women, you are the most blessed. And blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And here, dear friends, is yet another greeting of how the prophecies of old comes to be fulfilled. The greetings from the Angel, the greetings of Elizabeth, makes them continue to prepare their heart of the coming of Jesus in their lives.

And more importantly, dear friends, we need to remember that the presence of each other is important. That when we take time to be with family, when we take time to be with our loved ones, when we take time to be present with people that we perhaps choose to don’t want to be with, then that experience of Christmas becomes much more meaningful, much more beautiful.

And again, dear friends, and as we prepare this heart for Christmas, we see in the First Reading how this small insignificant place, Bethlehem Ephrathah was chosen among the clans of Judah. It says: 
You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, the least in the clans of Judah, out of you will be born for me the one who is to rule over Israel.

In our helplessness, in our situations of life, dear friends, the Lord invites us to look at the insignificant areas of our lives, areas of our lives that perhaps that we feel that is not important, insignificant. But the Lord asks us to go into those dark moments, to enter into those places perhaps of our broken relationships, perhaps of our own loneliness, perhaps of our own disillusionment, to enter into those insignificant place and to recognise Jesus being present there.

And when we are able to allow God’s presence to fill that space, then our hearts expands with its capacity to love. This capacity to know who Jesus is in our lives and take the path forward into acknowledging Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

And the Second Reading today also invites us and says that when Christ came into the world, God did not want any sacrifice of holocaust but He says:
You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin, then I said: Just as I commanded in the scroll of the book, “God here I am! I am coming to do your will.”

And even though, dear friends, we may find that situations around our lives, situations that perhaps we may find dark and gloomy, the Lord invites us to acknowledge His presence, to acknowledge His graces in our lives and move forward. And when we hear the greetings of the Lord, then our lives changes. The greetings become life-changing moments. These greetings become life-giving.

And when we allow that greetings of God to change and transform our lives, then this celebration of Christmas become more purposeful, become more meaningful because in the insignificance of your life, God has made it significant.

So it is also, dear friends, a moment that we recognise how God has blessed us. How God has visited us during these moments of preparation. How we as individuals, how we as family come together to allow that grace of God, that greetings of God, to bless each other.

For example, when we go to visit, I am sure usually you prepare gifts. Usually you prepare things that you want to bring because you value that person. And on the other hand, during this time as well, during this season of giving, we call to mind all the people who perhaps who are underprivilege and then we do something in order to bring Jesus to them.

And for us, as well as the parish, we go towards our homebound to bring Jesus to them. And we know that when you look at people who are homebound, when they come to receive Jesus in their life, that moments of visitation expands their capacity to embrace that God is with them, even in those hopeless situations.

And visiting towards people in the hospital when they are sick, people who are disillusioned, people who are mentally challenged, people who have no one to care for them, these are the opportunities, dear friends, that the invitation of God comes to us, that we like Mary, having received the annunciation, go with haste to visit Elizabeth. And that is how Mary invites us to prepare. To not look at what is uncertain before us but to accept everything in humility, surrender in obedience to God’s will and to trust in His loving presence in our lives.

And when we are able to move forward with that confidence that Jesus is with us, and to allow that experience to be reawaken in our lives, then this celebration of Christmas becomes meaningful, becomes purposeful.

So let us, dear friends, in this remaining days of Advent, let us become bearers of those greetings of God. Let us become agents of God’s visitation, like Mary and Elizabeth. And to allow that presence of God that has filled our hearts to also enrich the lives of one another.

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