Advent Reflections

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2021

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This tender reunion between the Blessed Mother and her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant with meaning. Mary enters Elizabeth’s home and greets her. We are told that “when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb.”

Leaped for joy, I have always assumed, such joy that it filled Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit and Elizabeth cried out a blessing for her cousin, so early into her pregnancy. I have often thought that these few simple lines tell us a lot about the reality that life is being carried in the womb, even at early stages of pregnancy. Life, not just tissue, and even more than that: conscious life: John, to be called “the Baptist,” recognized the presence of his Lord and Master, the one whose sandal straps he would feel unworthy to unfasten.

But what might this say to us? Christmas is fast approaching. A week from now we will be eating the leftovers from the great Christmas feast. Can we, do we, might we recognize more fully this year that the Christ is drawing near to us in a new way? Can we, do we, might we leap for joy ourselves, especially when the pressures of the secularized Christmas holiday distract us and tend to drag us down? He is near; He always has and always will be, but this is the time of year when we are given a closer look into the mystery. And if, perchance, we feel somewhat wounded this time of year, when that is true for so many, perhaps we can consider what a gifted poet once wrote, that “The wound is where the light enters you.” The great light which no darkness can ever extinguish. Remember, please, to let that light fill you with the Spirit of the God Who loves you preciously, fully, devotedly.

- Reflection by Fr. Bede Camera, O.S.B.