By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
Fourth Sunday in Advent: December 23, 2018
Micah 5: 1-4; Hebrew 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-44
The central event of Christmas is welcoming to the earth the surprises of heaven- a lovely definition given by Pope Francis during his Catechesis on Christmas on Wednesday, 19th December. The past three weeks have been reflecting on receiving the Reign here and now…and here we have the last Sunday to clarify what are we waiting for: for a Surprise! Pope Francis has initiated a lovely reflection with that Catechesis, when he said, the first Christmas was full of surprises – for Mary, for Joseph, for the Shepherds, for Herod, for the Magi, for the world, for everyone. The biggest of the surprises was the little baby, God made human! The most important question here is: are we surprised at all?
We are far too sophisticated to be surprised by anything. We don’t wish to be. We want everything to be certain, secure, under control and within our purview; then we feel powerful! That is why we have forecasts getting more and more accurate but not our efforts to mend our ways; we have predictions of the market values precise to decimals but we would like to do nothing to give equity a chance! But the Lord is a Lord of surprises! The one whom we await is a Lord of surprises! We are preparing ourselves to receive the Lord of surprises and how can we really do it?
The Word today instructs us on how to welcome to the earth the surprises of heaven… three attitudes that can help: they are being Open, Obedient and Outgoing.
Open… being open is being open to be surprised, being open to difference, being open to novelties and not getting stuck to the ‘it-has-always-been’ mentality. Micah pictures that in the first reading. He says, be ready to be surprised while great nations wait to behold the salvation of the Lord, there are simple and poor cities that would actually do behold the Lord. While the entire world thinks of something, the Lord does something totally different. We need to be open too, in our thinking, our acting and in our decision making, open to changes, open to newness, open to difference instead of going by what has always been.
The traditions are good, but not good enough as being open to the signs of the times and responding to them as God would want us to. God has always spoken from unexpected quarters – son-less Abraham, fugitive Moses, unfortunate Joseph, boneless Gideon, fragile Esther and the list goes on. Be open: the Lord can speak to you from any quarters today, through any experience, in any person. Do not close your ears or your minds, be open to receive the Lord and the Lord’s surprises.
Obedient… being obedient does not mean doing merely those things that are convenient to you! When Jesus said, ‘Behold, here I come to do your will’ (as says the letter to the Hebrews in the second reading), Jesus meant everything that he had to…right up to the death on the Cross. So when we expect to receive a person so obedient, we are called too to be obedient, in order that we may receive the surprises that God has in store.
To be obedient is to listen and to carry out order – to listen is easy but what follows is what truly matters. Are we ready to carry out all that the Lord calls us to? Or do we have excuses like, ‘no that is not possible in practicality’, or ‘what will the world think of me if I do it’ or ‘you know that is outdated by now’ or ‘come on, you don’t literally mean it, do you?’ We are not so eager or willing to receive the Reign here and now because we think it may not fit into the framework of the world today! We are convinced that it is good, but we are equally certain that it is not practical or feasible too! Can we really welcome the Lord of surprises this way?
Outgoing… being open and obedient becomes difficult because it demands us to be outgoing, that is think less of ourselves and think more of others! Look at Mary in the Gospel today. In spite of the problems that she herself had to tackle, here she is ‘hurrying’, ‘going in haste’, ‘as soon as she could’ to be of service to Elizabeth, about whom God surprises her with a news. When we get a news about others, their needs, their cumbersome experiences, what is our spontaneous reaction: judging whether they deserved it or not? gossiping with the others about the fate of these unfortunate ones? Or is it one of making haste to be of assistance? Being outgoing actually means, open to see and understand others, obedient to perceive and commit oneself for the good of the others and going out of oneself to help people.
The Surprises of Heaven are all epitomised in that single bundle of Joy that comes in search of us – the Child who is about to be born! Let us prepare ourselves, become more and more aware of our inner disposition and be ready to receive the surprises that God has to reveal to us. If we are really prepared, we shall ‘have a good Christmas rich in the surprises of Jesus’, as Pope Francis wishes us.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.