THE WORD
Song 2,8-14 or Zeph 3,14-18 / Lk 1,39-45
During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
IN OTHER WORDS
Mary, Elizabeth and the yet-to-be-born John the Baptist, the first members of the nascent Church, share the joy of God’s intervention in history, in their very lives, as we do today. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in their midst. Both Mary and Elizabeth are filled with the Spirit, and their joy is almost palpable.
The joy enjoined on the people in the first reading, the joy of being redeemed, which is not unlike our own joy this Simbang Gabi, is carried over into our Gospel.
I remember being particularly depressed one Christmas when I heard a popular song, “Last Christmas you gave me your heart. The very next day you took it away.” I was disheartened by the negativity and selfishness it expressed, particularly as it was seen as a legitimate Christmas song.
Yet we actually tend to have the Lord in our heart for a while before we lose him in the daily worries of our lives. Of course Christ does not take his heart away from us. We often simply just blot him out of our lives because of more immediate and urgent considerations.
Like Mary and Elizabeth and John we have been prepared for this joy over a very long period of time. We must renew this experience in our liturgy every year so that it can permeate our very being. Christ is being born in our hearts. We should keep him in our midst and never lose the joy that comes from this. Is the joy enjoined on the people of Israel really experienced in the gospel of our own personal and communal lives? Does the Lord, our God, really remain in our midst? Are we really open to this reality and do we show it in our lives?
- Fr. Alan Meechan, SVD | Naujan, Or. Mindoro
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
