FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT   – CYCLE  C- DECEMBER, 2015

-          Beginning with the first reading we perceive a contrast between a great mission and poor, simple and insignificant persons

o   Bethlehem, too small to be counted among the clans of Judah.  

o   Mary, the young girl from Nazareth, who has just received a disturbing message from God, travels to help her cousin who is pregnant, The young woman without any experience goes to help the old woman advanced in years and in wisdom.   

o   The works of God are always like this, do I see life in this same way?   

FIRST READING

Who is Micah?

v  He is a farmer, his visitation to the capital city of the kingdom   727-701, is neither  for tourism, nor for business, he brings a message from God to all the citizens

v  The instrument might seem inappropriate for the mission, but if we look at the history of the interventions of God, we see that he always choses what is small and little to accomplish his works, because the works belong to him.

v  The message that Micah brings is a call to conversion, to live according to justice.

v  What is destroying Jerusalem is not the Assyrians but the sins of her inhabitants, the injustice of that society, where the rich are richer every day and the poor are poorer and oppressed.   

v  Where those established in authority to serve the people have become corrupted and abuse those they should be serving.   

v  Micah brings an obscure message, God will punish all of this, but at the same time there is a small light , some hope: the punishment might be transformed into a call to conversion.   

v  The name of the prophet is in itself a symbol, it is the abbreviation of Michael that means “Who is like to God?   

v  The book of Micah looks like the work of different authors. Its literary style is similar to that of Hosea and Amos, because of its simplicity, freshness and passion.   

v  Let us see the message for this Sunday. 

FIRST READING   Mi 5:1-4ª

Ø  It is the Lord who speaks to Bethlehem, the small city, that in spite of being small,  witness to the great work of the Most High.     

Ø  From this insignificant place will come the one who will govern, who will be the leader of Israel.

Ø  This will take place after the time in which the Lord will allow that Israel be subjected by different powerful nations.   

Ø  And the one who is about to give birth will have given birth.   

Ø  He will be firm and will shepherd his flock with the power of God, his greatness will reach to the ends of the world.   

Ø  He will be peace   

Ø  What a beautiful prophecy of what Jesus will accomplish during his lifetime

RESPONSORIAL PSALM : Ps  79

R.  Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved..

Ø  This is a psalm of supplication, a psalm of petition that God intervene. 

Ø  Listen… yes we need that God listen, but I think that he always listens, we are the ones that need to speak to Him.    

Ø  What does God need to listen? We need all his power to help us in the situation we find ourselves.   

Ø  We need not only that he listen but also that he look at his vineyard.   

Ø  If he looks at her, he will fall in love with her, his masterwork, even if she is in bad shape due to her behavior.    

Ø  The passage for this Sunday ends with a commitment by those who invoke the Lord for help: we will never depart from you again.   

SECOND READING  : Hebrews 10: 5-10

Ø  This Reading speaks of the incarnation of the son of God, “when Christ came into this world.”  

Ø  He said to his Father “sacrifices and holocausts you wish not, because what pleases you is not the sacrifice of animals, but the heart of your children who offer these holocausts.” 

Ø  You have given me a body, to serve you as a human being, to put my tent in the midst of your people, and thus live with them and speak to them about you.  

Ø  I will offer my body, instead of the body of the animals offered in sacrifice, I will offer it as a holocaust, that means I will offer myself completely for you and for my brothers and sisters, as an expiation, an offering for the sins of all.

Ø  I will accomplish this doing in everything your will, your will to save all your children, to bring back those scattered, to make of all of them a family, as it has been  your plan in  creation. 

GOSPEL Lk 1:39-45

Ø  What Micah prophesized, and the author of the letter to the Hebrews has meditated about the incarnation of the Word, is becoming a reality in the womb of Mary, the young girl from Nazareth.    

Ø  Like all those who have received a message from God, she reacts going in haste, to share what she has received without cost.  

Ø  Where do you go Mary? What fills you of such a joy that makes you walk so speedily?    

Ø  Her message of joy and simplicity enters through the ears of Elizabeth and touches the baby she carries in her womb, and he reacts moved by joy, why? Because God has visited his people in the life who has just been conceived in Mary’s womb.  

Ø  Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit greets Mary as the Mother of my Lord, and she asks: how is it possible that the mother of my Lord come to visit me?   

Ø  How happy and blessed are you Mary because you have been able to believe that what God has told you by means of the angel, even being so unusual, is true and will be fulfilled in the baby you have just conceived.    

Ø  Yes this is the greatness of Mary, her divine maternity, nothing more and nothing less.

Ø  Thank you Mary for having given you unconditional yes, probably without understanding it completely, but trusting in God whom you love so much, to whom you have given your heart and all our being.   

CLARETIAN CORNER  

At this same time that I was writing the Rule and Constitution of the Order, the Confessor commanded me to write the essential points of the general reform of the whole church.

On the day me of the patronage of the most blessed virgin Mary, of the same year, when I was giving thanks for a benefit she had granted ( and I thought that this grace would excuse me from writing these notes) The Most Holy Mary commanded me to start writing them that very day and also told me to give my prelate some advice, for which I felt great repugnance. This advises are among the papers I handed over to him. . María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 229-230  

Despite all the precautions I have taken in treading on this terrain, I have not escaped the malice of wagging tongues. Some have murmured against me for refusing to be the tool of their baseless ambitions, others out of envy; some for fear of losing what they have, others out of malice. Still others, out of ignorance or mere hearsay, have invented all sorts of rogueries about me and started the ugliest rumors. But I have remained silent and rejoiced in the Lord, because He has given me a sip from the chalice of his sufferings. As for my detractors, I have prayed to God for them, after forgiving and loving them with all my heart. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 628.  

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiografía.

JARAMILLO RIVAS, Pedro. Miqueas en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento, La Casa de la Biblia, 1997.

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiografía  

RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras-Año C. San Pablo 2005.

SCHÖKEL , Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.

SAGRADA BIBLIA, Versión Oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.

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