His Love for You!

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Mi 5:1-4; Heb 10:5-10; Lk 1:39-45

The fourth Sunday of Easter invites us to reflect on God’s love for humanity. 

As they help us reflect on the selfless and unconditional love of God, the readings of the day remind us that there is no better way to think of Christmas than through God’s love. 

The first reading is a reminder for God’s people that the future ruler over them will arise from Bethlehem, a small and insignificant town. We need to remember that the city of Ephrathah is identified as Bethlehem. The text invites God’s people to trust in the fact that God’s covenant with them is secure and reliable even as Judah is under threat from foreign powers. While it reminds them of God’s eternal covenant, the text carries the assurance that the coming of the Shepherd-King would bring peace to God’s people. The One who rules in God’s name will also give them eternal peace. 

If God’s covenantal fidelity is the way in which God declares His love for His people in the first reading, the second reading highlights God’s love through the eternal sacrifice of Jesus. The second reading is a reminder that the birth of Jesus had the sole purpose of meeting his death on the cross in complete and perfect obedience to God’s will. The passage also reminds us that the insufficiency of the Old Testament sacrifices was replaced by Jesus’ eternal sacrifice, thus establishing the New Covenant. The text explains that we are sanctified and made holy through the personal and superior form of Jesus’ sacrifice, though such sanctification still occurred through animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. The necessity of the New Covenant through the supreme sacrifice of Jesus declares God’s love for humanity. 

The Gospel text reminds us of God’s love that Mary carries in her womb in the form of Jesus. Here, the greatness of God’s love is acknowledged by Elizabeth, who says, ‘Blessed is the fruit of your womb, and how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ We understand the depth and greatness of God’s love in the incarnation of Jesus, who renounced everything in obedience to God’s will and for the sake of his love for us all.

The readings of the day leave behind some important insights for our further reflection.  

Solidarity of God: God communicates His love for humanity through His eternal solidarity. It is in and through God’s accompaniment that we experience God’s love. Our God shoulders our pain and gives us comfort and peace.

Love of God in Person: Jesus is God’s love in the form of a human. We could not have imagined a purer form of God’s love than Christ’s sacrifice that began with his incarnation and ended at the cross. At Christmas, the Infant Jesus comes to announce God’s love in history. 

Earth as God’s Abode: If there is something more miraculous, it is God making the earth His abode. Jesus’ incarnation, which we witness through the ‘lowering of himself,’ is not for God’s self-satisfaction but has the purpose of raising us all to Himself. With Christmas reminding us of this noble truth, we could not have asked for anything better. 

In the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, there is a scene in which Jesus is walking in the company of his disciples, and the tax collector Mathew asks Jesus, ‘Do you have anything to declare?’ Because of the noisy crowd, Jesus does not hear it. Hence, Mathew asks John, ‘Does your Master have anything to declare?’ Without hesitation, John replies, ‘Yes, his love for you!’ 

Let us pray that we may be transformed by the profundity of God’s love at Christmas!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar