Fourth Sunday of Advent/C
Massimo Palombella
Today’s Gospel (Lk 1, 26-38), as Christmas approaches, presents us with the famous page of the Annunciation of the angel to Mary.
I think it is interesting to look at Mary’s words: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me“, words well known to each one of us, but which perhaps, in their simplicity, risk not being appreciated or understood in their true significance. In fact, the true handing over of our lives to the Lord is probably the most difficult thing to understand and implement. And often, the Lord himself leads us through unforeseen events, such as an illness, a great difficulty… to almost “necessarily” hand over something of our life to Him and then, in an imperceptible way, take it back and guard it with jealousy.
Mary’s availability to God touches on the essential point of our being Christians. Indeed, it is not a religious practice that almost automatically defines an identity. Being Christian is a way of thinking, of reading and interpreting reality, it is making the fundamental choices of my life having the Lord as the first criterion of discernment (and not, for example, exclusively money, peace of mind, career, affective security). To be a Christian is to earn slowly – and not without suffering – that freedom which is the healthy detachment from things, which is the substantial and daily surrender to God in the certainty that it is He who leads history and that He will lead me where the true good for me lies.
Here, on the essential of our being Christians, the Lord is waiting for us this Christmas 2024, perhaps more aware of our life than last year, perhaps more tired, perhaps more available to Him or perhaps angry and closed in on ourselves. In any case, He is waiting for us patiently to love us as we now need to be loved, and to lead us gently to be who we can and should be. We need not fear if we do not feel adequate to Him, ready for His love… The Lord enters our lives only to love us in whatever situation we may be in, and we need not doubt in the least that we are unworthy of Him because “His coming is as certain as the dawn” (Hos 6:3).
The Offertory antiphon for today’s celebration is taken from the Gospel of Luke (Lk 1, 28.42) with the following text:
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum;
benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui.
(Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb).
The music attached is by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), and is found in the book “Offertoria totius anni” published in Venice in 1594 (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Offertoria totius anni [Venetiis, Apud Angelum Gardanum 1594]). The live performance is by the Musical Chapel of the Duomo of Milan at the concert performed in Milan, in the Church of San Gottardo, on 21 November 2024.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
