Cycle B - Year I:  

21 December 2014: Fourth Sunday of Advent 

(Liturgical color: Violet or White for Simbang Gabi)

Luke 1:26-38

Let it be!

This Sunday we enter the final week of our Advent journey, and our last days of "waiting" for Christmas. In all churches and chapels we light the fourth and last candle in the Advent wreath, the candle of love. It symbolizes love for life and all creation, love for sinners and saints, love for the poor and the little ones, and especially God's love that redeems and shows us the way to His kingdom.

In the Gospel we will hear Luke's account of the angel Gabriel's Good News to Mary that she was chosen by God to bear His Son, our Lord Jesus. The

Annunciation is the first Joyful mystery of the Rosary. It invites us to reflect on Mary and her anticipation as she waited nine months for the birth of her Son. Mary is our model of how to prepare to welcome our Savior, by her openness to God's promise, her deep faith,  and her willingness to trust and follow God's plan.

Let us reflect that both Mary and Joseph came before the Lord, at different moments, facing the decision to believe in God and trust in His unfathomable plan. Their radical "yes" to God's plan brings fulfillment to their lives and enables them to participate by their own free will in the marvelous, saving work of God.

In historical perspective, the Incarnation of Jesus will not happen again.  (Although we know and believe that He will come again in glory as Judge and King of all creation in the second coming, but no longer as an Infant Child.) So in that sense, none of us will ever be asked to do anything quite like Mary and Joseph in their obedience to God's will. Yet in practical life, everyone of us is called to make a similar act of faith. Because we too stand before God and are asked by our Creator and Redeemer to place our lives in His hands, and to trust in His loving plan for us.

Perhaps, our deep faith in God is really the foundation of the Filipinos' spirit of resiliency in the midst of calamities and trials. It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling within us, that gives us the strength to overcome our fears and doubts, and like a trusting child make the leap of faith into the loving arms of our loving Father in heaven.

As we wind up our spiritual preparation for the Lord's coming, let us pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus, the examples of Mary and Joseph in their trust and obedience to God, and the blessing of the Advent season lead every one of us to respond freely to God with the obedience of faith, even when sometimes we do not understand immediately God's plan for us.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.