Visiting family and friends during the festive seasons has been a common practice for most of us. There is always a sense of joy in being able to meet, greet, and be in the presence of others, especially with people that mean a lot to us. Visiting others keeps us emotionally engaged with each other in a way that virtual meetings cannot offer. During the pandemic, the inability to visit others had been one of the challenges not only for the elderly but also for the young.
On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we have the account of Mary visiting Elisabeth as recorded by Luke in the Gospel. This visit wasn’t just a social visit but a visit that has great theological meaning. Yes, Mary did go to assist her elderly cousin who is now pregnant with John the Baptist but the visit also proclaims that the appointed one had come – God’s fulfilment of His promise.
When Elisabeth greets Mary with these words, “Of all women you are the most blessed”, we are being reminded that it is through Mary that God wants to bring about salvation. In fact, through Mary, He fulfilled the most extraordinary event in history – to give His Son to all of humanity. Mary is proclaimed “blessed” because she believed that the promise made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.
It is not only Elisabeth who greets Mary and the child Jesus in her womb, but also John the Baptist, while still in the womb of his mother, “responds” to this visit: “For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.” The “meeting” of Jesus and John the Baptist is also greeted with joy being the time of fulfilment that is about to dawn.
Advent is the season when we are reminded that the promise fulfilled long ago, will be fulfilled once again in the second coming of the Lord. Even though there is the excitement that Christmas is near and that God has fulfilled His promise with the birth of Jesus, our fast approaching celebration must also point towards the fulfilment of our redemption and fulfilment of our transformation. It was only through the coming of Jesus into our world that God’s extraordinary salvific deed was accomplished. Recognising that the promise is being fulfilled, Mary “brings” Jesus to Elisabeth
For many of us, on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, there is excitement in the air. The spirit of Christmas is becoming more pronounced and we must be watchful to not allow the festivities to blur our vision. The account of the visitation just one week before celebrating the nativity of Jesus must remind us that Christmas should primarily inspire us to carry out God’s word as Mary and Jesus did, in perfect obedience to His will, in cheerful kindness and unselfish generosity. What this means is that we need to carry (bring) Jesus to others as Mary did.
Christmas is the ideal time for us to be filled with the spirit of Christ, allowing us to not only celebrate His birth but to allow Him to be reborn within us. Once Christ is reborn in us, He enables us to share His love with all whom we encounter by offering them humble and committed service, unconditional forgiveness and compassion, and most of all caring love.
Mary was called “full of grace” because she became the “vessel” to bring Christ into the world. We too must open ourselves to be the vessel to bring God to the world, to one another – becoming a vessel of God’s grace by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us, with us and in us. However, in order to be God’s vessel, we need to empty ourselves sin, pride, apathy, unforgiveness, and allow God’s grace to heal our weaknesses so that we too can be “full of grace”. Filled with God’s grace, just as John was the voice in the wilderness pointing people to Jesus, Advent calls us to become a light unto others and lead others through the “darkness” to the light of Christ.
Despite the difficult situation Mary finds herself to be in, she was willing to be a vessel to serve God. Like her, we too must want to be a vessel, used by God only for His glory, for whatever purpose He has in mind. May the Lord visit us this week with His grace and fill us with His love.
4th Sunday of Advent (19 Dec 2021)
