4th Sunday of Advent Blessed is she who believed Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exultantly cries these words to Mary who has come to visit her straight after the announcement of Gabriel. Both women were filled with new life: Mary, the Virgin, bearing Jesus, the son of God, Elizabeth, the elderly woman, conceiving when it seemed impossible. Both women were blessed. Both believed in a promise made to them, yet both were only pregnant. They were in that strange time of waiting. They knew they had changed but they had nothing to show for it. Yet they believed that the promise made to them would be fulfilled. We too are in a strange time of waiting. Our faith in God has changed the way we look at reality. By faith, we believe that this world is good and holy and that all things in our life will work for good. Our faith has transformed how we treat other people. By faith, we are given the ability to forgive, to work through difficult relationships and believe that God can bring love out of sin – even if we don’t get to see it ourselves. Our faith has changed the way we look at ourselves. By faith, we believe that each of us is precious in God’s sight, so precious that we can follow in Mary’s footsteps and be a bearer of God’s love to those we met. Each day, in many different situations, we each have a choice. We can focus on the problems and difficulties of our lives and world and have a subtle form of despair rule us. Or we can focus on what seems a small seed of life in our hearts, our faith, and believe that God’s love is working in and through us bringing life to the world. May we have faith in God and be blest in our belief.
Sr Kym Harris OSB |