Patrick Comerford
We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV, 22 December 2024) and Christmas Day is just a few days away.
Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church at 9:30, Stony Stratford, and at the Advent Carol Service this evening at 6:30 pm. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Luke 1: 39-55 (NRSVA):
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
46 And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
Today’s Reflection:
In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 39-55), we continue a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.
During the week before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.
O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked on Tuesday (17 December). It was followed on Wednesday (18 December) by O Adonai, by O Root of Jesse on Thursday (19 December), O Key of David on Friday (20 December), O Dayspring yesterday (21 December), and by O King of the Nations today (22 December), and, finally O Emmanuel tomorrow (23 December).
The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today continues yesterday’s reading (Luke 1: 39-45), telling the story of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Saint Elizabeth.
This Advent has been a time of waiting, a time of preparation, a time of anticipation. For the past three Sundays, in our time of waiting, preparation and anticipation, we have been preparing ourselves in the liturgy and the music, with carol services and quiet days, with Christmas Markets and Santa’s grotto, with the Advent Wreath and the Crib.
The four candles on the Advent wreath have reminded us, week-after-week, of those who prepared us in the past for the Coming of the Christ Child: first the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, our ancestors in faith, including Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob; then the prophets of the Old Testament, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, who we heard from this morning; then, last week it was Saint John the Baptist.
This Sunday, the fourth and final candle reminds us of the Virgin Mary. This connects with the Canticle Magnificat, which we hear instead of a Psalm, and our Gospel reading, telling the story of her visit to her cousin Saint Elizabeth.
The Canticle Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) is normally heard during Evening Prayer and not on Sunday mornings.
The great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in an Advent sermon in London over 90 years ago (17 December 1933), said Magnificat ‘is the oldest Advent hymn,’ and he spoke of how she knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming:
‘In her own body she is experiencing the wonderful ways of God with humankind: that God does not arrange matters to suit our opinions and views, does not follow the path that humans would like to prescribe. God’s path is free and original beyond all our ability to understand or to prove.’
The Virgin Mary of the Visitation and of the canticle Magnificat is a strong and revolutionary woman, unlike the Virgin Mary of the plaster-cast statues and the Rosary.
The Mary I see as a role model for belief and discipleship is the Mary who sets off in a hurry and a flurry to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the Mary with a gob on her who speaks out of turn when she comes out with those wonderful words we hear in this Gospel reading, the Mary who sings the Canticle Magnificat.
This Mary is a wonderful, feisty person. She is what the red-top tabloid newspapers today might describe ‘a gymslip Mum.’ But, instead of hiding herself away from her family, from her cousins, from the woman in her family who is married to a priest, she rushes off to her immediately, to share her good news with her.
And she challenges so many of our prejudices and our values and our presumptions today. Not just about gymslip mums and unexpected or unplanned pregnancies, but about what the silent and the marginalised have to say about our values in society today.
And Mary declares:
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
It is almost like this is the programme or the agenda we can expect when the Christ Child is born.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 22 December 2024, Advent IV):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Love – Advent’. This theme is introduced today with Reflections by the Revd Lopa Mudra Mistry, Presbyter in the Diocese of Calcutta, the Church of North India (CNI):
Read Micah 5: 2-5a
The Synodical Board of Social Service (SBSS) Kolkata of CNI has been serving the 11 villages of West Bengal's South 24 Parganas region for over 25 years, focusing on improving malnutrition and increasing family income.
To combat malnutrition issues, a series of nutrition camps, organised by SBSS Kolkata CNI, recently took place in each of the villages. The community gained valuable knowledge about healthy diets and the benefits of local foods. To boost family income, participants learned multi-layer farming techniques and how to create organic fertilisers and pesticides.
Through these camps, the SBSS Kolkata CNI has been able to display God’s love in action and has demonstrated to the community as in Micah 5:2-5a, that God cares for the least and left behind and does not leave them out. God is concerned for them so that they can live in security, the security that food will be available to them from their own fields and that the produce of the Earth will render to them the security of finance from the sale of their produce which is tastier, healthier and locally grown.
God’s love translated into action when he made us in his own image to have communion with Him. The sacrifice of our time and energy cannot compare to the sacrifice of Christ. But in this season of Advent, we can reflect on big and small ways to share the love of Christ.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 22 December 2024, Advent IV) invites us to pray:
Almighty God, help us to show love through actions, caring for all regardless of their background or beliefs. Help us to define ourselves by love of others, and not of self. May our actions, not only our words, reflect true love.
The Collect:
God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
who chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of the promised saviour
: fill us your servants with your grace,
that in all things we may embrace your holy will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Eternal God,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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