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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings, Dec. 20, 2009
By Jeff Hensley
Catholic News Service
December 20, Fourth Sunday of Advent
Cycle C Readings:
1) Micah 5:1-4a
Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
2) Hebrews 10:5-10
Gospel: Luke 1:39-45
The time grows short until we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus as an infant. Our waiting in hope is soon to be fulfilled.
Many years ago during the season leading to Christmas -- a time when, most of us would agree, Christmas is overcommercialized with too much tinsel and artificial snow, too many lights and too little connection to the underlying reason for the season -- my wife stood along the upper rail of a mall overcrowded with Christmas shoppers. A wistful look came over her face, and a smile, and she said, "This is the one time of the year when you know that everyone here is thinking about what they can buy for someone else." Of course, she was right.
Hope is more than a feeling, more than a bit of wishful thinking. It has substance.
Some Scripture scholars have described more than 300 Old Testament passages that point to the birth of Jesus.
Many of them could not have been interpreted until after their fulfillment. But after the fact, they obviously direct our attention to how Jesus was to come into the world. At least three of them are found in the readings for today.
The Micah reading may be the most stunning of these, speaking as it does of one whose "origin is from of old" coming forth from Bethlehem, one who would "stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord," whose "greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth," who "shall be peace."
Then the psalmist tells the Lord in his hymn of praise and supplication: "Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved. May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the son of man whom you yourself made strong."
And in the Gospel of Luke, Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, pregnant with John the Baptist, feels him leap in her womb as Mary approaches carrying the yet to be born Jesus. She says, "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." Mary becomes, even then, before Jesus' birth, our example in faith, the first to believe in the son of man.
QUESTION:
How can you nurture the virtue of hope in your life and the lives of those around you?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42bc).
END
Copyright © 2009 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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