Fourth Sunday of Advent – 22nd December 2024
This Sunday is the fourth and last Sunday of Advent. Our journey of preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus is almost complete; but not just yet; we still have a few more days left! So, it is very fitting that this Sunday we encounter Mary just after she has been called and asked to be the Mother of Jesus. Having recovered and caught her breath after hearing God’s plan for her, Mary does not sit quietly and wonder what this is all about. The gospel begins with a journey. Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to visit her cousin Elizabeth. There is a sense of urgency and excitement about this; how could Mary possibly keep this amazingly good news to herself. She had to tell somebody what had just happened to her!
Neither Mary nor Elizabeth were wealthy, powerful, famous or influential. They both came from two small insignificant villages; Mary lived in Nazareth and Elizabeth lived in a town in the hill country of Judah. Yet it is in these two unimportant towns and through these two poor, but faithful women that God decided to fulfil the ancient Promise and Covenant: John the Baptist, the Herald, and Jesus, the Messiah, will be born. God is entering our world in an altogether new and radical way. Jesus will not be born in a temple, a palace or in Jerusalem, the holiest and most important city in Israel; but in Bethlehem in absolute poverty.