Sunday readings in Brief 4th Advent B
1 Sam 7:1-5.8-12.14.16; Ps 89; Rom 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38
Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. Tomorrow will be Christmas Day meaning that the fourth week of Advent will only have one day. Nevertheless, On the advent wreath, we light the fourth candle that symbolizes “LOVE”. During this week, we reflect on God’s love for his people. God is love and everything he does is out of love. He created us in his own image and likeness because he wanted to share his love with us. He intended also that we should procreate and build families and communities in an environment of love.
Because of this tremendous love, he did not create us like slaves to work for him nor did he attach a remote control to us so that he could manipulate our movements and decisions. Out of love, God created man a FREE being that is even capable of straying from him. When we stray from the love of God, we become vulnerable and we suffer the consequences just like the people of Israel. However, God tries always to bring us back to his love and the birth of the Messiah is the epitome of this effort.
In the history of salvation found in the Scriptures, God always intervened to help his people whenever they were suffering. However, he never arm-twisted them to return to him but rather he used prophets to convince them to come back to him and be safe. This went on for a very long time but the people kept on straying because they only repented for convenience purposes. Finally, he sent us his only son Jesus to convert the heart of every individual and liberate us from the slavery of mind and heart. Many people ask, “If God really loves us why then does he allow us to suffer?” God gave us knowledge of right and wrong and the freedom to choose. He also gave us a conscience that keeps us in check whenever we make decisions. Many people think that freedom is to do what one wants and the way he or she wants. However, experience has taught us that we do not always desire what is right, and we can be slaves of our own ignorance and pride.
Many youths complain that their parents are very strict and controlling, but when they are left to make their own decisions, they end up messing badly in life. The parents have to clean up the mess for them and sometimes it is too late or impossible to reverse the situation. Freedom is conjoined at the hip with responsibility. We need the help of God to be able to make the right decisions that will eventually lead us back to him because this is our goal – to go back to God where we came from. God wants us to resemble him but sometimes we try to make God resemble us. He wants us to see things his way and not our way.
King David thought that it would please God if he built him a fancy house. David thought like a human being that since he was a king and he had all the resources at his disposal, he could build a house for the Lord. However, through the Prophet Nathan, God told David that it was not he who would build him a house. Like David, many times we decide and do many things thinking that God or those around us will be pleased. Later it turns out badly and we are not able to understand why. Sometimes it is the people around us who mislead us. Some parents choose careers for their children and later it turns out disastrous. Some seek political positions not because they want but because some people push them, and they end up frustrating development. Some young people waste a lot of their valuable time trying to live like some socialites or celebrities they fancy.
We need always to consult with God first even if the people around us may make us feel we are called to a particular cause. They could be mistaken. When David told Nathan about his plan, Nathan thought that it was a good idea. However, God sent him back to David to tell him that it was not his mission to build him a house but rather someone else’s. God promised David an everlasting kingdom through his descendants.
Though Solomon built the Temple for the Lord, it is in the birth of Jesus that the promise of King David’s everlasting kingdom comes to fulfillment. In very unlikely circumstances, God decides to come to us in a form that we would be able to relate. He came as the perfect human being in whose image and likeness we were all created. God became man so that man may become God again, says St. Augustine of Hippo. He came to refurbish the ruined image and likeness he had created us with. Through the Virgin Mary’s generosity and faith in the promise of God, Jesus is coming to us to manifest the love that God has for each one of us.
Everything is possible with God. Unlike Zachariah who doubted the power of God to turn around the impossible, Mary did not doubt but wondered innocently how a woman would conceive without a man. There is a distinction between the response of Mary and that of Zachariah. Zachariah thought that his old wife couldn’t conceive but Mary wanted to understand what the plan of God was in realizing what the angel had just told her. Many people have given up hope in their predicaments including baptized people. Sometimes we feel as if God has abandoned us because we want Him to act according to our preferences. In this case, we don’t let God be God in our lives but an Automatic Teller Machine to produce whatever we want when we want it and the way we want it. This has made many turn to modern-day prophets who claim that they can make God expedite their desires, such as getting rich.
My dear friends, God loves you and wants to save you. He can turn around the situation you are in today and make it a blessing. However, St. Augustine of Hippo reminds us “He, who created us without us, will not save us without us”. This week we are invited to contemplate seriously the love of God for us. “Count your blessings and see what the Lord has done”.
Have a loving week.
Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD
SVD JAMBO KENTAN 