ADVENT OF HUMILITY AND OBEDIENCE.
December 19, 2021
Fourth Sunday of Advent – C.
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me
according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
A Serbian proverb says: “Be humble for you are made of
earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.” And a Spanish proverb adds: “The
first duty of a soldier is obedience.”
Greatness in humility, that is the beautiful message of
Advent, and one of the most precious expressions of God’s love. The one who is
to come will incarnate himself in our ‘HUMAN’ nature, made of ‘HUMUS’. He will
therefore take onto himself our weaknesses, and give us a share in his glory
and power.
The Advent pilgrimage teaches us about God’s way made of
love and humility. What we are preparing to celebrate, the first coming of our
Lord and Savior in our humanity is the admirable exchange where God came unto
us. God made himself a man to share in our life with all its realities. At the
incarnation, we see the power of God manifests itself through our weakness. God
chooses the poor, the weak, the humble to fulfill his great design of human
salvation. What does the Lord Jesus say in his dialogue with Nicodemus? “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16) This is
exactly the summary of the Advent and the Nativity of the Lord. God’s love was
given unto humble and weak human nature.
The readings, on this 4th Sunday of Advent, speak of that
humility and love in the divine plan of salvation. The Prophet Micah, in the
first reading, announces to the tribe of Bethlehem-Ephrathah, the smallest
among all the tribes of Israel that it is the chosen to bring forth the Savior
of the world. From the very small, the Lord will make a most powerful ruler who
will lead his people to freedom and peace.
The Gospel of Luke speaks of the fulfillment of Micah’s
prophecy. From the very small village of Bethlehem, a village lost in the
countryside, the Lord through his Angel, visited a humble woman, a virgin, and
made to her the announcement of the great news of His Incarnation. Mary, the
humble woman of Bethlehem is to be the mother of the Most High. This joy and
great news cannot be hidden or kept for oneself. So, Mary, in haste, is
traveling the Hill Country to share her joy with her cousin Elizabeth. It is
also for Mary, an opportunity to share into the joy of her cousin who, in her
old age is given the divine privilege to bear a child. The visitation of Mary
to Elizabeth is as well an act of humility and fraternal charity, an act of
love.
The Nativity of the Lord finds all its messages here:
Humility and Love. To these messages is also grafted another great message,
that of obedience. Christmas thus is a time of the fulfillment of humility,
love, and obedience. The second reading speaks of that obedience. Jesus Christ
came as an obedient servant of the Father. His coming is to do God’s will and
nothing else. He says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”
As the Lord’s disciples, we are also called and challenged
to make ours the call of this 4th Sunday of Advent and Christmas: Humility,
Love, and Obedience. Our being is a consecration to Christ. As says the author
of the Letter to the Hebrews, “By this “will,” we have been consecrated through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Therefore, we should
make ours the call to obedience, humility, and love.
Mary, the mother of our Savior stands as a beautiful example
and a model of obedience and humility. Though she was given the privilege to
carry the Lord in her womb, she humbly chose to be the one to run miles and
miles to her cousin who conveyed a lesser message, John the Baptist. In Mary’s
Visitation to Elizabeth, it is Jesus, the Son of the Most High who visits John,
the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah. It is God who visits our humanity of poor
sinners. Thus, the exclamation of Elizabeth: “And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
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