(Audio)
Hark! my lover–here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
How different Advent is from Lent, even if the vestments look similar. Listen to the tone of hope in the options for the first reading. Our lover is coming, so close we can see him through "gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices." We hear him telling us that winter is over and the flowers are blooming.
The LORD has removed the judgment against you,
he has turned away your enemies;
The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
Our King is coming into our midst to set right all that was wrong. Even in this season where we can become very isolated and self-critical we hear that our King does not see us that way. He wants to rejoice over us with gladness and renew his love in us, to "sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals."
These readings are given to us to stir our hope. We should lift our expectations for what the LORD wants to do in our hearts this Christmas. The enemy wants to take this hope away from us, but we don't have to let him. When the darkness of this solstice presses in, when the weight of all our concerns is heavy, let us say "my lover-here he comes". Let us listen for his voice, raised in song, singing joyfully over us. The lies of the enemy can't stand when the King is in our midst. They are completed drowned out by his song.
Mary set out in those days
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
Mary is, in a sense, the windows through whom the LORD gazes, the lattices through whom he peers. She is bringing Jesus to the world who longs for his coming.
Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
Coming to Mary is the greatest secret to having a firm hope as we wait for Christmas. Our souls will leap for joy because of the fruit of her womb which she brings to us. Her Magnificat is nothing other than her taking up the song of the LORD's own joy over the people to whom he draws near, in whose midst he will soon stand. She will teach us to sing it!
O Radiant Dawn,
splendor of eternal light, sun of justice:
come and shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the
shadow of death.
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