The Fourth Sunday of Advent A Light of Love

Since the first Sunday when I wrote about Hope, I have looked forward to writing about love on the fourth Sunday. After all, isn’t that the culmination, the absolute best. The fullness of the Love of God is given to us in human form. The waiting is at an end. It just doesn’t get any better than that. 

But as the time of writing neared, I hesitated. One question nagging me.” How do I capture in mere words the overwhelming love of God?” God’s love is expressed through Incarnation, God becoming fully human, simple, unpretentious, and often powerless. God loved so much that He became one with us to show us, in human form, what love really is, and with whom and how we are to love.

How do we even begin to understand the power of God’s love when the word love has become nearly meaningless in our society. We have but one word when we speak of love. We love popcorn, poetry, and people using the exact same name. Language fails us.

God’s love is not of the mind. It is not of language; it is of the heart. It is not to understand. It is to be steeped in until we become one with it, and we are changed.

As we light the fourth candle of Advent, we are called to abandon ourselves. We allow ourselves to be emptied that God, who breathed His life in us, can make us full. On this fourth Sunday of Advent, God gives the totality of Himself to us. He becomes the blood flowing in our veins, being pumped by our heart. His love animates us, provides us with the fullness of life and makes us whole. 

In today’s Gospel, Mary is living love. Her prayer, “Be it done as you say,” is the fiat that lays bare her heart and allows God to be infused into her body. This fourth week of Advent, God is asking us the same thing he asked Mary, “Will you bear my son for the world?” We are each asked to respond with faith and integrity. God asks, “Will you bear my son in your body, in your life, in your thoughts, and in your heart? “Will you welcome me to be the lifeblood that courses through your veins and gives you life?” “Will you allow me to fill you and give you the fullness of my love?”

God isn’t pushy or demanding. He wasn’t with Mary, and He isn’t with us. He asks for our openness to be filled with the overwhelming, all-consuming love that He is. 

No doubt, like Mary, we may have a few questions. She said, “How can this be? I have had no relations with a man?” The Angel’s answer to Mary, “The power of the Most High will overshadow you, and your son will be the son of the Most High God.” 

We say, “How can this be? I am inadequate, sinful, selfish, prideful, or simply not good enough.” To our questions and hesitations, God whispers in our ear, “My power will fill you and overcome any weakness, limitation, sin, or human frailty. I love you as you are.” What’s your answer, and what is mine?

Will we have the love, courage, and faith of a 14-year-old girl in Nazareth?

With trust, open hands, and a loving heart, are we able to utter, “Be it done according to your Word?” 

Do we have the courage to allow God to drain the weaknesses, selfishness, and sin that possess us and fill us full to overflowing with His own lifeblood? 

This Christmas, can we see beyond history and know Christmas as more than a remembrance? God is asking us today to be His Incarnation? Will we be God for our world? 

Together we pray,” Be it done according to your Word.”

In God’s Unending Love,

Gwen