The liturgy of the fourth Sunday of Advent is based on the following readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16; Psalm 88; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38. The main theme of these readings is on the faithfulness of God and his love which cannot be called into question.

The Psalmist puts it nicely in Psalm 88: ‘I know that your love will last forever, that your faithfulness is as permanent as the sky.’ This is an echo of the mysterious long period of Israel’s history; a patient people who waited generations after generations for the fulfilment of Yahweh’s promise to David of a dynasty that would last forever and bring the saviour to the whole world.

The Gospel teaches us that with Mary’s consent to become the mother of the Messiah, God finally makes good his promise.  The second reading explains further that the mystery was revealed to all as the world saw a king who is at once much more humble and infinitely greater than that long expectation awaited: from heaven and from earth, he will be called Son of the Most High and his reign will be without end.

The doctrinal message behind these readings is the lesson that God saves man with human cooperation. But our salvation remains his initiative and totally gratuitous in a way that always surpasses human logic. Psalm 127 teaches us that salvation does not come from man; unless the Lord builds the house, those who labour, do so in vain. We learn a great lesson from King David; out of his good will and generosity, he wanted to do something for the Lord: build him a house. He had not understood that it is always God who cares for us, and not we to care for God. In front of God, it is man who is needy and not the contrary.  What ever the case, God has no needs. We cannot do him any favours; in our moments of greater generosity we would do good helping fellow men, especially those who may be more needy than we are. It is then that God will appreciate that what we did to the least of us, we did it to him.  And that is the human cooperation in man’s salvation, doing good to ourselves and to others.

Mary gives us an example per excellence. When she said: "I am the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say”.  God became one of us. Our human nature was raised to a new, incomparable dignity. She influenced the climax of human history. That is how Mary did a great service to the world by showing us the Saviour. 

From a pastoral point of view, we must be careful not to miss the point of Christmas by focusing on the externals. It is essentially about the coming of our salvation more than anything else. If we focus mainly on the externals, the colourful celebrations that we and our families must carry on, we end up celebrating Christmas in a superficial way.  These external colours are only reminders of the loving kindness of the Christ Child who comes among us with his mysterious but totally real presence. It is when we have this in mind, that we can approach Christmas with the deep sense of need to see and receive the child Jesus, a kind of anticipation that is the condition for genuine, personal encounter with Christ. 

This humble approach of celebrating Christmas, makes us recognise that it is God who gives himself as a gift to us; rather than the reverse as King David wanted to do. If we ask him the graces to receive him, as a special gift this Christmas, we might learn the fundamental dispositions necessary to become his ´co-workers´, like Mary. With Christ we become true Christians and true co-workers, and it is Jesus who continues to do all in us by the Holy Spirit. That kind of approach to Christmas would make us prepared to do God’s will and make us ready to accept his word, in an unconditional way.  That way we shall celebrate Christmas like Mary of Nazareth did.

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