Sunday of the Fourth Week of Advent, Yr. C, Lk.1:39-45-45
“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Luke 1:45.
God chooses the poor and the weak to fulfill his plan. In the first reading, Micah tells us that the Lord will behave just as he always did. He will not have the Savor of the world come from a great city like Jerusalem, but from a small village, Bethlehem. He will not be from a rich powerful family, but from a poor one, just as with David at the beginning of the kingdom.
The gospel shows how this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus, the son of Mary. She, too, is of the poor, one of those who goes unnoticed by others. The second reading invites us to be ready and obedient as Jesus was so that God can manifest his love through our weakness.
On this Sunday, therefore, we are given our Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph to reflect upon. Though Mary was perfect and Joseph was a deeply virtuous man, they were fully human. He walked through Mary’s pregnancy and Jesus’ birth with every human emotion and experience.
Joseph was faced with an extraordinary mystery as he discovered his wife was pregnant. He knew her to be a woman of exceptional virtue and holiness. This made Joseph, however, reconciled with her surprise pregnancy. In his predicament and situation, the angel appeared to him in a dream, he accepted the angel’s message without questioning.
On the other hand, Mary was also invited by God to face her pregnancy in faith. Her perfect response was “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She could not explain nor understand what was happening but, nonetheless, she knew deep in her soul that God was in charge leading all things to his glory.
Hence, both Mary and Joseph are wonderful models of faith and obedience to imitate and follow. They were obedient to the will of God despite that God’s will drew them into an incredible and unfathomable mystery. They were first-hand witnesses to the salvation of the world, the greatest act ever known.
Above all, they both embraced this mystery and accepted it in faith. We ask Mary and Joseph to pray for us that we may have the faith they both lived and help us to respond generously to God and trust in all that God had spoken and will speak to us just as they did through Christ our Lord, Amen.
“YOU ARE THE LIGHT”