Here Comes the King!
Advent's fourth Sunday
Announcements for December 19, 2020:
We're not fair-weather fans! It might be cold and cloudy, but let's plan on our 11:00am Sunday Mass being outside, in front of the church, this weekend. I will send a text if anything changes - let me know if you want to receive these text notifications from us.
You'll want to check out our plans for Christmas, including our schedule of Masses. Click here for everything you need.
Find all of our announcements (and more) now in one place: our Parishioner Portal. (Scroll to the bottom of any page on our website to find the link.)
Please be in touch with me if you need anything at all, or if you'd like to share any questions or concerns.
Dear Saints,
This weekend we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Christmas is right around the corner!
Are you ready? That's the question I asked myself in my article for this week's bulletin.
How do you think that worked out for me? No matter... Christmas is coming, ready or not!
And that's where we pick up our Gospel reading this weekend. Mary responds to the news that she will give birth to Israel's King, that she will bear God's Son:
Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.
How do you read Mary's may it be done to me? For many years, I thought of it as submission, something like resignation to a plan that was not her own.
But that's not what's going on here. We don't get a good sense of it in translation, but the Greek gives it to us in full. When Mary gives her fiat (actually, her genoito) we're supposed to hear her eagerness for the plan and purposes of God (h/t Bishop Serratelli). Most likely a young teen at the time of the angel's appearance, Mary greets the awe-filled (terrifying?!) call by hoping that God will see it through to completion.
This is so inconceivably wild that only from the inside - from our own attempts to live totally for God - can we fearfully grasp Mary's excited utterance. But it's also entirely fitting: Mary the Warrior Queen gives everything she is and everything she has in the battle between Love and violence.
Mary might have been caught off guard by the angel's appearing, but she shows no hint of hesitation. No matter how muddled our run up to Christmas has been, now is the time for our yet more eager yes!
I love you, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
PS Check out our Christmas plans here.
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Fourth Sunday of Advent
