Gospel Reflection Dec 22 – Kim VanHuffel
Sunday, December 22
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lk 1:39-45
Gospel:
Mary set out
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,
“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.”
Gospel Reflection:
What resonates with me upon reflection of this passage today is the word “fulfillment.” If we look at the 1st reading for this Sunday (Micah 5:1-4a) we see that Jesus fulfills all of the prophecies of that passage, and in fact he fulfills more than 300 prophecies from the Old Testament overall.
I could write many beautiful things about Elizabeth and Mary from this gospel passage, especially about their faith and how God fulfilled his promises to them, especially through the birth of their sons. Very important.
In the short time I have though, I feel called to share a personal story with you because this passage holds special meaning for me. When I was pregnant with my third child (my second having been a miscarriage), this passage kept coming up for me over and over again, and while I did not fully understand why, I reflected on it deeply. Mark and I were even planning to name our baby John because of this passage! Then one day, close to the end of my first trimester, all signs pointed to me having another miscarriage. On the way to the hospital, as I was very upset, this passage came to my mind. “Blessed are you who BELIEVED that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” At that moment I felt that God had been preparing me for this eventuality and telling me, through this passage, that I had to have faith that everything would be as He had promised me, even though I “felt lost and in the shadow of death” right then and there. It was a long 11 weeks that I had to hang onto this passage, but in the end, the promise was fulfilled. (And we named our second daughter Claudia, not John!)
God has promised us all great things (eternal life being the most important) if we BELIEVE what has been spoken to us by the Lord, it will be fulfilled. He never said we wouldn’t suffer prior to that fulfillment though. So let us all have great joy that God gave us his son Jesus on Christmas day to eventually bring all things to fulfillment. And, let us have faith, that no matter what we are going through, that God “will never leave us to face our perils alone” and wants great things for us.
For anyone struggling this Christmas, I recommend meditating on my favorite prayer by Thomas Merton, A Prayer of Unknowing, from which I quoted a couple of lines in this reflection. On behalf of myself and all of our St Brigid clergy and staff, we pray that each of you will feel the peace of Christ this Christmas. God Bless,
Kim VanHuffel
Pastoral Associate