DECEMBER 18, 2011
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Reading 1: 2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8-12, 14, 16
Psalm: Psalm 89: 2-3, 4-5, 27, 29
Reading 2: Romans 16: 25-27
Gospel: Like 1: 26-38
When I read a Gospel account as familiar as the story of the Annunciation, I find it so tempting to go through it quickly instead of letting the words touch and affect me in new ways. Let’s read it again, slowly this time, and allow ourselves to be amazed once more by the story of this young girl who responded so generously to God’s call. Who among us today would be so ready to drop our dreams and ambitions to make room for God’s plan?
Making room: that’s one way of looking at Advent. Long before Joseph and Mary’s inn-hopping adventure, a kind of making room had already taken place in her heart. She was the first to make room for God’s proposal, which eventually led to a making room for Jesus. How could a simple girl like Mary surrender herself completely to God despite the uncertainty, confusion, and potential dangers in what was being offered to her? These days, even with our educated opinions and sophisticated ideas, our complex psychological know-how, and our deep philosophical and spiritual insights, we could not respond as readily and totally as Mary had done. This simple girl had more room in her heart for God, perhaps uncluttered by these very ideas, concepts, and insights that keep us from simply loving and believing. Maybe her heart was free of the impurities of self-importance, useless worry, and suspicious motivations. She was a simple girl but her faith was by no means simplistic.
From Mary, we learn to let go of our little dreams to that we can make room for God’s bigger and better dreams for us. From Mary, we learn to make room for the mystery of God’s ways, so that God can bless us in the ways he wants to, even when we don’t understand. From Mary, we learn to humbly acknowledge that God is the source of everything so that we make room for God, instead of relying on our own exhaustible strength and power.
Reflection Questions:
1. Are you open to new ways of listening and responding to God or are you stuck with the familiar, the “tried and tested”?
2. What internal spaces do you need to clear in order to make room for God this Advent?
BRO. HARVEY C. MATEO, SJ
School of Medicine
