Sunday, December 23, 2018

Fourth Sunday of Advent


Mary has been visited from on High with the news that she is to be God-bearer. And this morning we watch as she heads into the hill country to share her extraordinary secret with her cousin Elizabeth, herself large with child, since God has intervened in her life as well. 

In their intimate encounter Mary and Elizabeth remind us that there is no place where God’s presence does not reach. Our stories as well as theirs are replete with God’s interventions, if we dare to notice them. God is no less intimate with us today as well, for we too have been welcomed into intimacy with God. 

The Creator of all has chosen to become one among his own creatures. God is with us, God now has a human face. Such a truth far beyond our grasp invites us to wonder, and wonder is the threshold of contemplation, a contemplation that is not so much seeing God, as entering God’s seeing. 

The Visitation, c. 1495, attributed to Rueland Frueauf the Elder, German (c. 1445 - 1507), Oil on panel,  27 5/8 x 14 15/16 in., Fogg Museum.   Meditation based on Father Isaac’s homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.