20151221 WELCOMING THE BELOVED WITH ANTICIPATORY JOY
Readings at Mass
EITHER:
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First reading
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Song of Songs
2:8-14 ©
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I hear my Beloved.
See how he comes
leaping on the
mountains,
bounding over the
hills.
My Beloved is like a
gazelle,
like a young stag.
See where he stands
behind our wall.
He looks in at the
window,
he peers through the
lattice.
My Beloved lifts up
his voice,
he says to me,
‘Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
For see, winter is
past,
the rains are over
and gone.
The flowers appear on
the earth.
The season of glad
songs has come,
the cooing of the
turtledove is heard
in our land.
The fig tree is
forming its first figs
and the blossoming
vines give out their fragrance.
Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
My dove, hiding in
the clefts of the rock,
in the coverts of the
cliff,
show me your face,
let me hear your
voice;
for your voice is
sweet
and your face is
beautiful.’
OR:
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Alternative
First reading
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Zephaniah
3:14-18 ©
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Shout for joy,
daughter of Zion,
Israel, shout aloud!
Rejoice, exult with
all your heart,
daughter of
Jerusalem!
The Lord has repealed
your sentence;
he has driven your
enemies away.
The Lord, the king of
Israel, is in your midst;
you have no more evil
to fear.
When that day comes,
word will come to Jerusalem:
Zion, have no fear,
do not let your hands
fall limp.
The Lord your God is
in your midst,
a victorious warrior.
He will exult with
joy over you,
he will renew you by
his love;
he will dance with
shouts of joy for you
as on a day of
festival.
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Psalm
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Psalm
32:2-3,11-12,20-21 ©
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Ring out your joy
to the Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
Give thanks to the
Lord upon the harp,
with a
ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
O sing him a song
that is new,
play
loudly, with all your skill.
Ring out your joy
to the Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
His own designs shall
stand for ever,
the plans
of his heart from age to age.
They are happy, whose
God is the Lord,
the
people he has chosen as his own.
Ring out your joy
to the Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
Our soul is waiting
for the Lord.
The Lord
is our help and our shield.
In him do our hearts
find joy.
We trust
in his holy name.
Ring out your joy
to the Lord, O you just; O sing him a song that is new.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Key of David, who
open the gates of the eternal kingdom,
come to liberate from
prison
the captive who lives
in darkness.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Emmanuel,
our king and
lawgiver,
come and save us,
Lord our God.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 1:39-45 ©
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Mary
set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of
Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as
Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you
are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be
honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting
reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who
believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’
WELCOMING
THE BELOVED WITH ANTICIPATORY JOY
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: SONGS 2:8-14 OR ZEP 3:14-18A; LUKE 1:39-45
What is
it like to welcome someone whom you love dearly? We all know the joy of
anticipating the meeting with someone we love, especially if that person is our
beloved. Many of us would take much trouble to prepare ourselves to meet
that person. And if the person is coming to our house, we would make sure
we clean up the place, decorate it with a nice ambience and prepare the best
food and delicacies to serve our guest. We only want the best for that
person because we love him or her. We want her to feel happy to be with
us, to enjoy our company and share our love and joy. Indeed, the
preparation to receive our guest is already such a great joy. The thought
of meeting our beloved gives us much consolation and joy. The waiting
itself is filled with yearning and thoughts and feelings of love.
This is
what the scripture readings of today invite us to do. As Christmas is
just a few days away, the Church is asking us whether we are ready to receive
our guest, who is not just human but also divine. Are we ready with our
preparations to make Him feel welcome, not just physically but most of all,
whether our hearts are ready to receive Him? In other words, are we
filled with joy and expectation just thinking of receiving Jesus into our
lives?
In the
scriptures we are told of how Israel was filled with joyful expectation of the Lord’s
coming. The first reading from the Book of Song of Songs portrays Israel
as the beloved of God. The lover is of course the Lord
Himself. Israel was delighted to know that God was coming. The
author says, “I hear my Beloved. See how he comes leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills. My Beloved is like a gazelle, like a young
stag.” Yes, that is how God loves us. He is excited about us and
His joy is to love us. He calls us His beloved too. “My Beloved lifts up
his voice, he says to me, ‘Come then, my love, my lovely one, come.”
Truly, He is inviting us to come to Him. This is fulfilled in the gospel
when Christ, still in the womb of Mary, came to fill John the Baptist who was
in the womb of Elizabeth. Hence, “she gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all
women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?
For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt
for joy.”
However,
God is a “shy” lover. He does not force Himself on us. He needs to
be invited. That was how the author describes God. “See where he
stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the
lattice.” If we want God to come into our lives, then we must invite Him
and open our hearts to receive Him. If we are still lacking this joyful
expectation of the birth of Christ, is it because our hearts are too
preoccupied with many non-essential things like the rest of the world than with
the most important thing which is the birthday boy Himself? I am afraid
that many of us are not much different from the world in our preparations for
Christmas, focusing on the material preparations, the merry making, the gifts,
the decorations, etc, but not on our personal relationship with the Lord.
How could we ever celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, without Christ
Himself? The joy of Christmas is more than dinners, parties and
merrymaking but the encounter with the love of Christ. With this experience
of Christ’s peace and love in our hearts, we in turn would want to share Him
with others through the sharing of gifts, love and fellowship. Unless
such celebrations are rooted in Christ, they are empty, superficial and we have
missed out the true meaning of Christmas. And thus Christmas will not
bring us the joy and peace we hope it would.
But if
we make room for our beloved Lord to come to our house, just as Mary and
Elizabeth did by opening their hearts to the Lord, then we, too, will receive
peace and joy. For those who are reconciled with the Lord, and have made
their peace with God and their fellowmen, especially through the Sacrament of
Reconciliation, they too will see the fruits of Christ’s coming. As the
author says, with the coming of the Beloved, it means that “winter is past, the
rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The season of glad
songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.” So
great is the joy that this joy is expressed in dancing. “He will exult with joy
over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for
you as on a day of festival.” The Prophet invited Israel in similar terms
when he wrote, “Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice,
exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!” Even John the Baptist
leapt for joy in the womb of his mother. If we are not leaping for joy,
it is an indication that our hearts are perhaps not really disposed to receive
Him yet. We have not entered into the experience of being loved and
embraced by our beloved. God remains distant from us. All who are
in love are always full of joy. The psalmist remarks, “They are happy,
whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen as his own.” Indeed, to belong
to the Lord, to be His Chosen as His own truly make us feel so loved and
special.
As a
result, we no longer have to live in shame and in fear. The Prophet
Zephaniah said, “The Lord has repealed your sentence; he has driven your
enemies away. The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more
evil to fear. When that day comes, word will come to Jerusalem: Zion, have no
fear, do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst, a
victorious warrior.” With God in our midst and as our warrior, we need
not fear about our future or our past. The former is certain and the
latter is forgotten. Indeed, if many of us are fearful about our past and
the future, it is because we have not brought Christ into our daily life and
our struggles. So long as God is with us, as He was with Moses, the
prophets, Mary and Christ, then we can be certain that we can overcome all
suffering, trials and challenges in life. He will see us through and
prove us victorious.
But how
does He come into our lives so that we can be filled with joy? Alas,
Christ has come and is coming all the time, but because we have not been
attentive, we have missed Him. Christ comes to us through the ordinary
events in life. He came to Elizabeth in her cousin, Mary, who bore Him in
her womb. He comes to us too in the daily events of our life, in our joys
and sorrows, in good and bad times. But faith is necessary to see
Him. It was the faith of Elizabeth that enabled her to see that Mary was
truly the mother of her Lord. She could have doubted Mary’s claim to
carrying the Messiah. Of course, she herself, having a miraculously conceived
of John the Baptist, knew that nothing is impossible to God. Thus she was
filled with joy for Mary. “Yes, blessed is she who believed that the
promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” With faith comes hope. With
hope comes joy. The hope of liberation, of being loved and forgiven, of having
a new life, fills us with joy indeed.
Secondly,
He fills us with joy when we share the joy we have received. We find
Elizabeth and Mary filled with joy because both of them shared with each other
what the Lord had done for them. No greater joy can we have than to share
with someone whom we love the joy that is in us. When joy is shared, it is
doubled. That is why at Christmas we underscore the importance of giving
gifts. As we give ourselves to others, we find joy. Making
ourselves a gift to others is what Christmas is all about because God makes
Himself a gift to us in Christ. Of course, the greatest joy we can give
to someone this Christmas is to give Him Jesus. Have you shared with
someone what Christ has done for you as Mary did with Elizabeth? If you
have not, then, although you might have given many gifts, you would have failed
to give THE giver of all gifts to those whom you love so much. The gifts
we give to others will soon be forgotten but if we give them Jesus, He will see
them through not just today, tomorrow or next month, but throughout the year
and beyond.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
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