Fourth Sunday of Advent ~ Ready to Say “Yes”
At a wedding, the words “for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, ’til death do us part,” may run trippingly off the tongue. But while the bride and groom recite them as a lovely formula, the people in the pews hear them from experience. They are the ones who have sat in doctor’s offices to hear a spouse get a grim diagnosis, they are the ones who have cradled Down’s Syndrome children in their arms or lost their savings or homes in the financial crisis. We live in a culture that tells us that most problems can be solved if we throw enough money at them. Yet these people have learned that love is what is needed most: love of God, and love of the persons
God sends into our lives.
That’s all Mary had, really. Not a penny to her name, totally reliant on her father’s household, trusting that in Joseph her parents had made a good match, knowing that she could turn to her kinswoman Elizabeth for help. Trusting, too, in the word of God and bearing within her a heart attuned to her people’s longing for a messiah. In that moment when she met the angel Gabriel, this girl was given the challenge to say the “yes” that would be the turning point of human history.
We see the consequences right away: Mary hastens to Elizabeth to offer help to her, to perform the first act of Christian ministry, since she bears within her body the body of the Lord. This Sunday is a bridge to the feast day of love, and we hear a treasured story that calls us to pay attention to needs in this world, in our family and circle of friends. We hear a story that calls us to charity, self-sacrifice, and sharing.
To where, or to whom, does this beautiful Sunday lead you?
~by Reverend James A. Field