Reflection - 4th Sunday of Advent

King David lived in a royal palace. King David lived in a fine house of cedar. King David loved God and proposed to build for God a house finer than his own. But King David soon learned that no house he could build with his hands, using the finest materials available, would ever be suitable for God. And so for all his days David was left with the question: What is a suitable house for God.

The angels in heaven soon took up the question: What is a suitable house for God? Down through the ages, they thought of different temples, palaces, or the great halls of Greece. Surely, one of them would be suitable for God’s house. Then there came a moment in time when a great stir went thought heaven. The angels’ excitement reached its highest pitch when the angel Gabriel was seen descending to earth – to Palestine, to Galilee, to Nazareth. And suddenly the angels heard the long-awaited answer: the only suitable house for God is in human nature. Not in the camps of the powerful, not in the palaces of the beautiful, not in the halls of the wise, but in the open and receptive heart of a teenage Jewish girl from the lowest class. God found a home in the heart of Mary.

We are all familiar with the story of the Annunciation. The angel said, “You are to be the mother of God.” And what did she say? She asked the question, “How can this be?” And how many people throughout the ages, including you and me, have cried that as well? “How can this be? How can I carry on? How can I get along? I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve just been told I have covid-19 or cancer. I’ve just lost my job. How are we going to manage financially? How can his be?” You are asking Mary’s question. And we can identify with her questioning.

But we also remember Mary’s famous response –‘”let it be done to me as you said.” And from that moment on, Mary was faithful to her “yes.” She was the first believer, she was the first follower, the first disciple, and she didn’t fall away in troubled time. Mary is a faith pilgrim. She is the God-bearer, and that is our role as well. She gave to the world the living Christ, and that is our role as well. That is what our “yes” means.

On this final Sunday of Advent, why not hear and believe the answer given to King David’s question? There is still time to prepare a suitable house for God. Offer to God in these final days of Advent the only house God wants, the house that is in your heart. God prefers the humble comfort of a loving heart more than any place in the universe. That’s simply the way God is. He found a home in the heart of Mary. He wants to find a home in your heart and in my heart.

If you have a brief faith reflection on today’s reading that you would like to share, please send it to me at deaconruss@holyspiritunoh.org.