When we make sacrifices for others, we allow them to feel God’s Spirit touch them
Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 22, 2024
Our readings today emphasise the importance of children in our lives to help us move beyond selfish desires and discover the joy of sacrifice for others, and the patience we need for that.
The First Reading reveals to us two important points about God’s relationship with humanity:
1) a child will be born for us: families are healthier with children, who help us to mature and become more like God = joy; in the midst of all our challenges, a child reminds us where joy comes from, and what is most important in life;
2) for us to ‘mature’ and accept the moral code laid down by God, God allows us the freedom to make a mess: we tend to come back when we are suffering or when we see a child in need.
As boys in primary school, my brother and I were taught how to make baskets after it was soaked in water. Another student showed us how you could smoke it: and smoking was seen, in those days, as very ‘cool’ or grown up. So we sneaked a bit of cane home to the farm. One day Dad caught us smoking the cane. Instead of getting angry and punishing us, he offered us $1 if we could smoke the whole length (6”). Getting money was exciting, so we tried to finish it: in the process we became sick. We never received the $1 and we never smoked it again!
It seems we are often slow learners and stubborn, so God has to be patient while we rebel. But how can we be sure that God will come back? What gives us new hope is revealed in the Gospel, where two pregnant women are presented to us. One is old and one is young. The older lady, Elizabeth, reminds us of the importance of our past: we can learn from it. While the young lady, Mary, reveals our present and points us to our future.
Quite often, we can feel unimportant/ impotent, unable to overcome the challenges we face. God’s choice of Bethlehem reveals how God often takes the ‘least’ and makes ‘it’ great: first, it’s the place where David was anointed King and, second, it was where Jesus was born. But most of the time the people there lived ordinary lives. We’re invited here to think about perseverance and faithfulness so that great things, often unexpectedly, can happen through us.
When we have children, people rarely praise us and children rarely appreciate all that’s done for them. But one day the child blooms into womanhood or manhood. That is true joy. The Gospel reveals the importance of children to speak to us about what is really the most important thing in our lives: to love. The sacrifices of a mother/ father reveal God’s love for us.
And, when our natural parents might fail in showing that love, God sends other people to reflect the love that God wants us to experience. This is a challenge to us, because God may be calling you or me to show God’s love to another person and we fail to say YES, like Mary did. This is why sometimes we suffer as children, because others refuse to cooperate with God.
The age of Elizabeth points to the past, the days of the Old Testament, which prophesied about the future Messiah. Mary, of course, points to the present and future. Our past is important because our history gives us a sense of our importance: we are not a disposable commodity.
Mary’s ‘present’, then, is our ‘present’, now: when God reveals God’s closeness with us, God’s love for us. We celebrate Christmas every year to remind us that Christ is a present reality. And, therefore, we can look to the future with confidence through our faith, hope and charity. Charity being an expression of love that makes Christ ‘present’ again.
The Second reading reveals that the personal sacrifice of Christ for us, teaches us how to find meaning and true joy in our lives: not by words of sympathy for others, but by our big and small sacrifices for others, so they feel loved.
Many in the world blame others when things are not going well. It could be true. But, at a certain point, we must admit that the past cannot be changed, and we ourselves, must make the best of what we have: we cannot play the victim and expect to be happy or successful.
We cannot undo our past mistakes, or the mistakes of others against us. But, just as John the Baptist called many to repentance we, too, can choose to repent, to change direction, today. When we make sacrifices for others we are saying YES to carry Christ, as Mary did.
Hopefully, our practical love for others will cause them to feel the Spirit of God move in them, just as Elizabeth felt the presence of Christ when Mary visited her.
By Gerard Conlan, OMI
