Tuesday December 21

 

 

FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT

 

The Joy of Encounter  

                                 

Introduction

         Few things, if any, are more beautiful on the human and the divine level than the encounter between persons. An encounter is a great joy and grace. The first reading speaks of the encounter between a suitor and the young woman he loves; this is probably an image of the love between God and Israel. In the gospel, Elizabeth encounters Mary; even the unborn John the Baptist encounters the Savior and his mother. Deeper than meetings between people in business, science, politics, or their jobs, are the understanding, love and sharing of real human encounters. This is the kind of encounter that awaits us with the Lord on Christmas and in this Eucharist. Encounters are even deeper when God is present in them.

 

Opening Prayer

God, we tend to lose ourselves
in the bustle and stir of the day,
in our work and our petty worries.
Give us the freshness of heart
to look for the things that matter,
those that make our lives deeply human
and at the same time, open us
to your world and to your values.
Make us long to encounter you with joy,
that we may discover again the quality
of gratuitous giving, of respect,
and of carefree self-forgetting love,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Reading 1: SG 2:8-14

Hark! my lover–here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
My lover speaks; he says to me,
“Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one,
and come!
“For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!

“O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice, 
For your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely.”

 

Or: ZEP 3:14-18A

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you,
he has turned away your enemies;
The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
He will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.

 

Responsorial Psalm:  Ps 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21

(1a; 3a) Exult, you just, in the Lord! Sing to him a new song.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.
R. Exult, you just, in the Lord! Sing to him a new song.
But the plan of the LORD stands forever; 
the design of his heart, through all generations.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
R. Exult, you just, in the Lord! Sing to him a new song.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield,
For in him our hearts rejoice;
in his holy name we trust. 
R. Exult, you just, in the Lord! Sing to him a new song.

 

Alleluia

Alleluia, alleluia.
O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law:
come to save us, Lord our God!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: LK 1:39-45

Mary set out in those days
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.”

 

Intercessions

–       That the deeper coming of Christ to us on Christmas fill us all with gratitude and joy, we pray:

–       That God may give us the gift of having many friends, we pray:

–       That we may learn to appreciate people and rejoice in their gifts and talents, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord God, loving Father,
in this Eucharist you encounter us again
through your Son, Jesus Christ.
In these signs of bread and wine,
may we really meet him
from person to person.
Let him set our hearts afire with his Spirit,
that we give up our self-made securities
and dare with him to become
your people and your world
in him the Christ Jesus, our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

God, our Father,
we have encountered your Son
in his word and his body.
Let him go with us now
to speak through us your word
of courage and lasting hope
and to make us his body to the world,
that every encounter among people
may from now on become
a blessing and a grace and a joy,
and a commitment to one another and to you,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Blessing

The coming of Christ has brought joy to the world. With him, there is hope. No more room for sadness and fear! Even the cross can lead to joy! May Almighty God make you people of joy and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

There is a strong sense of movement in today’s readings. In one, a young man, at the first stirrings of spring, runs to greet his beloved. Abounding in energy and absorbed in this forthcoming romantic encounter, he longs for the first glimpse of her. In the Gospel, the expectant mother of the Messiah travels with haste to the hill country to visit her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. The hand of God is present in both pregnancies at the dawn of a new era.

The Song of Songs contains some of the most beautiful poetry in the Bible. The strong love between the lover and beloved has vivid emotional, even erotic, characteristics. The songs center wholly on the love between two people and may well be derived from a Hebrew wedding ceremony. The love between the two is held together by strong human forces in the spring of the year when the attraction is said to be the most intense.

Unfortunately, in our time die beauty of human love often takes second place to the unbridled expression of sexuality. This is to exchange the noble for the tawdry. This strong attraction underlies the unity of marriage, the spirit of self-giving, and ultimately the birth of new life. The sexual component is noble, and the Bible does not hesitate to extol it as a God-given impulse. There is a context for our teaching on sexuality. What is good must be seen as such and set forth, especially for the young, in a positive way.

If Mary’s response to the annunciation was the obedience of faith, her journey to Elizabeth springs from the charity of faith. Mary goes to Elizabeth, Jesus to John, the greater to the lesser. Elizabeth’s greeting expresses her unworthiness, just as John in the womb accedes to the unborn Christ. Today we hear much about status, protocol, and political correctness. The Gospels have little time for such concerns. In her Magnificat, Mary will acknowledge God as the source of any recognition she might receive. As the whole discussion of honesty and humility unfolds in the scriptures, each of us is called to personal discernment.

 

Points to Ponder

Human love and sexuality

Preparation for marriage

The greater and the lesser

The importance of humility.