Inviting Christ into our Hearts

Homily: Fourth Sunday of Advent (B)

20 December 2020

Luke 1:26-38

Fr. Ricky Canet Montanez 

One of the things I’ve missed throughout this pandemic is travel. I enjoy traveling as much as you do. I learn so much about our country, our world and people. I do avoid traveling during the Christmas peak season when people are desperately trying to get home to spend the holidays with family and loved ones. I opt to visit my family in January to avoid the craziness at the airports. I guess everyone just craves the good feelings of home associated with Christmas. Sadly, this year, airports are going to be ghost towns and bus terminals won’t be bustling with people. This pandemic has everyone observing travel and social gathering restrictions. Many of us, myself included, won’t be having the full experience of being “home”. Those in Bicol and Aurora, have literally lost their homes because of the typhoons; medical frontliners and those keeping peace and order will be busy at work and can’t even be with their families; and those who’ve lost jobs or had to take pay cuts would not have saved up any money for a ticket to go to the province or reunite with family abroad. The most difficult Christmas, I believe will be for families who have lost mothers, fathers, and children during this quarantine — they who were unable to properly mourn their loved ones or even bury them. Home will never be the same. 

Today is the last Sunday of Advent. As we stand at the threshold of Christmas we are asked to consider preparing a home for the Lord. Today’s readings present to us the story of King David and Mary who have different concepts of a house for God. In the passage from the Second Book of Samuel, the settled and victorious King David intends to build a worthy dwelling for the Ark of the Covenant in thanksgiving to God.  David felt it unjust that he lived in a palace while the Ark was in a tent. He thought he was doing the right thing by wanting to build a more respectable “House of God” but God sent the Prophet Nathan to remind David that what is more essential than building GOD a house is making room for God in his life.  Nathan asks David to remember and acknowledge that the power, success and privilege he enjoys have all been gifts from the Lord and that only He would ensure the perpetuity of David’s dynasty. The first-person pronoun “I” has been used eleven 11 times in God’s message through Nathan as an emphatic reminder to David to assess his priorities. We all know how easy it is to leave God out of the picture when we are contented with our lives. We tend to forget that the good things we enjoy in life come from the goodness of God but when misfortune strikes we are quick to grumble, complain, and resent God for such unhappy circumstances.  

In the Gospel, Mary is invited by God through the Angel Gabriel to make room for Him by bearing God’s Only Begotten Son. Mary ponders, questions and clarifies the possibility of the never-before occurrence of the virgin birth.  “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” (Luke 1:34) In the end, Mary still agrees to cooperate with God even if she did not comprehend fully what was happening.  She readily made room for God in her life through her Fiat.  Mary could have said no because she was endowed with free will and God does not coerce us into accepting His plans. However, Mary willingly and voluntarily chooses to declare herself the handmaid of the Lord, allowing herself to become the worthy vessel of God’s presence when she accepted into her womb the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. This explains why such importance is given to her and her role in the history of human salvation. This honour is given to Mary as she is identified in the Litany as the Ark of the New Covenant. Rightly so, Mary becomes the living shrine of the Real Presence of God for humanity. In Mary’s obedience, God’s loving plan of salvation, which St. Paul says “has been kept secret for ages” (Romans 16:25) is made manifest.  

Author Thomas Merton best describes the circumstances God has chosen to bless us with His greatest gift to humanity — His Son, Jesus.  I quote “Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and YET he must be IN IT, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst.”  Every Christmas, we are reminded of all the blessings and gifts we have received from God. We are asked if, we too, in thanksgiving, can make room for Jesus in our life, and prepare a fitting home for Him in our hearts. We make space for Him when we are patient, sympathetic, welcoming and understanding of others and ourselves; when we make room for forgiveness for those who have hurt us even if they do not deserve it; when we remove our social biases and respect the differences that exist among us; when we are less critical of our physical and character imperfections and acknowledge that all people are beautiful and valuable; when we look beyond our personal comfort and convenience to extend a helping hand to others.  We are all simply struggling to get by in this world. In truth, none of us is perfect. None of us qualifies as a “fitting dwelling” for God, but He does not judge us for it. He swiftly makes His home in our hearts at the slightest hint of an invitation because the love He has for each of us fills us to the brim, making up for all that we lack. To borrow a line from a movie where Tom Cruise says to his leading lady, “You complete me”, I dare say that Jesus completes each of us. (For the benefit of millennials and GenZ-ers out there, the movie is the 1996 blockbuster Jerry Maguire. 🙂)

All throughout this Advent Season, we have been preparing our hearts for the coming of the Lord. We, too are invited to cooperate with God as He continues to bring the merciful, healing and loving presence of Christ to the world. Like Mary, we, too are invited to participate in the ongoing mystery of God becoming flesh in the lives of people today. May we allow Him to be born in each of us that we may become the visible presence of our compassionate God to those who desperately need Him in their lives and in their homes.