December 21, 2023 at 9:27 a.m.
The fourth week of Advent: THE LORD IS NEAR!
Editor’s note: This is the last in a series of Advent reflections that were first published in The Evangelist in 2018.
As we enter the fourth and final week of our season of Advent, our journey and our preparations for the “advent’ of the Lord are nearly at an end. In fact, they are at an end, since the Fourth Sunday of Advent this year is also Christmas Eve! It is hard to believe that Christmas is here, although the excitement levels (especially with our children and grandchildren) and the heightened sense of expectation are certainly very obvious. Not surprisingly, the prayers, music and readings at the Mass also have this atmosphere of breathless anticipation. The Prayer after Communion for this Sunday can sum up our thoughts and feelings well:
We pray Almighty God,
that as the feast day of our salvation draws ever nearer,
so we may press forward all the more eagerly
to the worthy celebration of the mystery of your Son’s Nativity.
One of the unique features of the liturgy during the last week of the season of Advent is the singing or reading of what are called the great “O antiphons” as heard in our Advent carol, “O Come, O come Emmanuel.” Each of these short antiphons or prayers, describes the nature of the Messiah and his coming. One speaks of the Messiah as the wisdom and holy Word of God, who governs all creation with strong, yet tender care. Another sings of the Messiah as the radiant dawn, splendor of eternal light, who shines on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. And then there is the one we may know the best that describes the Messiah as Emmanuel (God with us), king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people who comes to set us free. If you can, look again at that Advent carol and spend a little bit of time in prayer reflecting on what each of the descriptions says and what they might mean.
At Mass on the Fourth Sunday, our Gospel is always about one of the “annunciations” or announcements that are made in preparation for the coming of the Messiah (yes, in a way, there is more than one annunciation Gospel!). As we are in Year B of our three-year cycle, this time around we hear the most familiar annunciation: the annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to Mary. In Year A we would read about the angel of the Lord appearing to St. Joseph in a dream and telling him to take Mary for his wife. Next year (Year C), we will have the Gospel of the Visitation, when Mary goes to meet her kinswoman Elizabeth. She recognizes the mother of her Lord and St. John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother’s womb: both therefore announcing that the Messiah is near.
These wonderful annunciation Gospels are not only about the events that led up to the birth of Jesus at Christmas. They also invite us to think about our response to this annunciation of the good news of salvation. Like St. Joseph, we can be open to God’s messengers, however they may come to us and to respond to those messages as St. Joseph did in love and obedience: “he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Matthew 1: 24). Like our Blessed Mother, we can and should enter into a prayerful dialogue with the Lord (“how can this be …?”) and then say “yes” to what he asks of us: “be it done to me according to your word” (cf. Luke 1: 38). Like the Gospel of the Visitation, we can imitate Mary, who was blessed because she believed what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled and because her soul magnified the Lord (cf. Luke 1: 41-46). We can also be like Elizabeth, who was open to being filled with the Holy Spirit so that she then recognized the presence of God (Luke 1: 41-43).
As the season of Christmas is more-or-less upon us, let us indeed give great thanks for the coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Let us remember that our celebrations are ultimately about what Jesus came and did for us: Christmas and Easter are closely bound together! The Opening Prayer for the Mass this Sunday puts it so well:
Pour forth we beseech you O Lord, your grace into our hearts;
that we to whom the incarnation of Christ, your Son
was made known by the message of an angel,
may by his Passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of his Resurrection
Prayers and blessings to you, your family and friends as we enter this sacred time of Christmas. May the Lord continue to guide and sustain us as we proclaim by word and deed, the new-born Savior.
Father Barratt is the director of the Office of Prayer and Worship, episcopal vicar for the Hudson Valley Vicariate, a member of the Presbyteral Council & College of Consultors and pastor at Holy Trinity Parish in Hudson-Germantown - all for the Diocese of Albany - and adjunct professor at Siena College and St. Bernard’s Postgraduate School of Theology and Ministry in Albany.
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