4th Sunday Advent - Year B

Every year we celebrate Christmas.  In every Christmas we celebrate the presence of God.  How should we celebrate this wonderful gift of God’s presence in Christmas 2011?  This Sunday’s readings give us certain models.

The first reading from 2nd Samuel narrates David’s model of celebrating the gift of God’s presence.  He wanted to build a temple for the Lord.  But God intervened through the prophet Nathan and told him to wait.  Constructing a temple at that time might cause confusion and misunderstanding among people regarding the real nature and purpose of the God’s gift of presence.  Because people were used to the ever available presence of God through the mobile tent and tabernacle with them.  That is to say, they had always the experience of God being with them wherever they went.  It was almost like the experience of God in their hearts.  If building a temple undermines the concept of God’s ever-available presence in the hearts, David was not doing a service to God.  So he was asked to wait even though the temple would have helped to unify the people in some respects.

In the second reading, we see Paul speaking about the mystery revealed to him.  Though the gift of God’s presence was first given to the Jews, in God’s total plan it was to embrace the Gentiles too.  In other words, God’s gift of presence was meant for all people on earth.  And so the Jews had to take their eyes from Jerusalem’s temple and look for God’s presence in the hearts of all people.  A shift from temple to hearts.

In the Gospel we find Luke depicting Mary as the model in welcoming God’s presence.  She accepts and activates the word in spite of her doubts.  When she said ‘Yes’, the power of God overshadowed her and made her a new creation and through her the whole creation became new and redeemed.  How do we celebrate this gift of God’s presence in our lives?  The late Pope John Paul II helped us to celebrate this gift of God’s presence in us through his grace-filled papacy.  In declaring a Year of the Eucharist and adding a new set of mysteries to the rosary, the Pope further was inviting us to treasure God’s presence and reach out to people as Mary our mother did.  Is our church an “upper room” for us to reach out to people?  Does the gift of God’s presence unite us through our worship in the church and motivate us to embrace the needy?