O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, come forth from deep within me with Christmas luminous beauty.
- Edward M. Hays
(Spend some time praying this petition. Let yourself feel this longing, and be open to its fulfillment in Christ.)
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Sg 2:8-14; Psalm 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21
Lk 1:39-45
Mary set out in those days
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
Sometimes it seems as though life is an endless pursuit. Pursuit of achievement, of purpose, of happiness, of fulfillment, of acceptance. Pursuit of love. Even in our spirituality we talk about 'finding' God - our pursuit of God.
Today's readings take this notion of our pursuit and remind us of an important Truth - a 'capital T' truth: God pursues us. From today's First Reading from Song of Songs to the Gospel, God pursues us. Song of Songs shares the tender voice of a lover pursuing his beloved: Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come. In today's Gospel from Luke, Mary is visiting her cousin, Elizabeth who is also expecting a child.
Mary, the Immaculate Conception, is the perfect tabernacle carrying the Lord, Jesus to Elizabeth. Mary, to whom Jesus has come first, is now ushering Jesus' coming to those she encounters. She is the vehicle of Jesus' pursuit of us.
Here, in today's Gospel, I believe we are Elizabeth in her humility that the mother of my Lord should come to me. I believe we are John the Baptist leaping for joy in Elizabeth's womb. As Jesus' birth nears, let us remember that Jesus comes to us, seeks us, pursues us. Therefore, let us arise. Let us leap for joy!
- by Scott McClure
The Son of God Became Human
From The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One, Section Two, Chapter Three
Article 8: I Believe in the Holy Spirit
V. THE SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH IN THE LAST DAYS
The Holy Spirit and the Church
737 The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint mission henceforth brings Christ's faithful to share in his communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prepares people and goes out to them with his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests the risen Lord to them,
recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ, supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God, that they may "bear much fruit."132
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
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