As we light the fourth Candle on the Advent wreath, the circle of light is complete and the Light of Christ grows stronger and brighter from today onward. It gives us once again the certainty that the light has defeated darkness and its shadow world. We should shout Alleluia more loudly.
Giving presents at Christmas is a great tradition but don’t forget that the greatest gift we can offer is the gift of our presence. It is rather apt that we hear the story of two women who were cousins being present to each other, Elizabeth and Mary.
It was the younger woman, Mary, who took the initiative to visit her older cousin, Elizabeth. In fact, the long and difficult journey between Nazareth, Mary’s home, and the hill country of Judah, where Elizabeth lived, would have been much easier for Mary but it was still an arduous and hazardous journey.
Many people will be setting out like Mary over the next few days to visit relatives, friends and loved ones, some of whom may not be very mobile and depend on others taking the initiative, like Mary, to visit them in person. The gospel reveals that such visits, such efforts to be present, can be grace-filled events.
The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth reveals another important value, that of two different generations embracing one another. The younger woman, Mary, probably a teenager, brings her youthful vitality to her older cousin, Elizabeth who was very much older. Zechariah has already referred to Elizabeth as past child-bearing age but she offers her younger cousin the fruit of lived experience. She was a kind of elder mentor for Mary. Both the younger woman and the older woman had much to offer each other and much to receive from each other. This is something to cherish and value when Grandparents visit us or we visit them.
A joyful experience of this season is the engagement of children with the feast of Christmas. They can open up the mystery of this feast in new ways for both parents and grandparents. Children’s engagement in carol services and nativity plays touch adult hearts with the joy of the gospel in a way nothing else can. Parents and grandparents, however, can open up for children the deeper meaning of what they are celebrating.
Both the women of the story carried within them the mysterious power of God’s life: the unborn Jesus and the unborn John the Baptist. As a result, the two women were a source of blessing for each other. In response to Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In response to Elizabeth’s words, Mary was filled with a spirit of prayer. She was inspired to pray her wonderful prayer that we call the Magnificat.
They remind us that we all carry the mysterious power of God’s life within us. The Word who became flesh and dwelt among us dwells within each one of us. Like Mary, the Lord has been given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit has been poured into our hearts and, through the Spirit, the Lord is being formed within us. We are all a work in progress, but, in virtue of our faith, we carry the mysterious power of God’s life, of God’s Son, within us. Our calling is to allow God’s Son to really live in us and through us, so that we can be a source of blessing for others, just as Mary and Elizabeth were for each other. God has given us the most wonderful gift, his own Son wrapped in flesh and blood. Whenever we give this gift of God’s Son to each other, the blessing of that first Christmas becomes flesh in and through us. Alleluia!!
Bronko Nagurski was a famous American Football player known for his strength. On retiring he took up farming and a ran a petrol station A visitor to the town where he lived asked whether or not Bronko’s petrol station was successful. "Once someone buys petrol from Bronko, they never go anywhere else," a local told him.
"Is the service good?" asked the visitor. "No, not really," said the local. "Does he have the best price?" "Actually he charges three cents more than everybody else in town." "Then the petrol must be better." "No, it's just the regular petrol." "Then why does everyone keep coming back to Bronko?" "Because when Bronko puts your petrol cap back on, nobody else can undo it!"
by Fr Thomas O'BRIEN aa
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