Cycle C - Year II:

20 December 2015: Fourth Sunday of Advent
(Liturgical color: Pink or Rose)

Gospel: Read  Luke 1:39-45


"Blessed are you among women...."

We now enter the final week of our Advent journey. and our last days of "waiting" for the big event of Christmas day.

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. In all churches and chapels we now 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.

The Gospel from St. Luke narrates the visit of Mary to her cousin, Elizabeth, We meditate on this scene in the second Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary.

In the history of salvation, what is the significance of Mary's visit to Elizabeth before the birth of Jesus?

When Elizabeth greeted Mary and recognized the Messiah in Mary's womb, they were filled with the

Holy Spirit and with a joyful anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promise to give humanity a Savior. The elderly Elizabeth, also with child, reports that her child leaps with joy in her womb as the two cousins met. Hence, the unborn child John the Baptist is the first to witness the divinity of the unborn child Jesus, in the temple of Mary's womb.

What a marvelous wonder for God to fill not only Elizabeth's heart with His Holy Spirit but the child in the her womb as well. For John the Baptist, even before the birth of the Messiah, pointed to His coming and leapt for joy in the womb of his mother, as the Holy Spirit revealed to John the presence of the King to be born.

Much in the same way, the Holy Spirit is God's gift to us to enable us to know and experience the indwelling presence of God and the power of His kingdom. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the way in which God reigns within each of us. It is the Holy Spirit that opens our hearts to see and experience the presence of God in our lives.

As we wind up our spiritual preparation for the Lord's coming, let us pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus, the joy of Mary and Elizabeth, 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. Let us pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit to understand in faith what our eyes and mind fail to see. Amen.

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


Ad Jesum per Mariam!