Third Sunday of Advent - Year B - 14th December 2008

Humble Servants

Today's readings present us with four great ancestral figures of our faith: the prophet Isaiah, Mary the mother of Jesus, Paul the apostle and John the Baptist. Each played an important role in the unfolding of God's plan of salvation. Truly, all ages have called them blessed.

In today's liturgy they speak to us about themselves. Put more accurately, they speak to us about the power, the grace and the spirit of God working in their lives. They attribute all they have accomplished to the presence of God with them. In her Magnificat, the responsorial psalm today, Mary proclaims her 'nothingness' without God. In the Gospel John the Baptist declares his unworthiness even to undo the strap of Jesus' sandal. They were humble and open to God in their lives.

They are blessed because of what God has done for them. Can we accept that we too are blessed and that God is doing great things for us and in us? Advent seeks to remind us of the Lord's arrival, that God has broken into human history in the person of Jesus, and nothing can be the same since that unique event. This is why St Paul asks us to "Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say rejoice!"

Isaiah, John the Baptist, Paul and above all Mary acknowledge their own poverty and eagerly sought the help of God. They were fertile soil and were ready to receive him when at last he came. Like them, we too must be humble and open to God and ready to receive Him when he comes to us in the people and events of our daily humdrum lives.

In a world that cherishes independence, it can be difficult to admit that we need God and one another. If we are humble enough to receive what God and others offer us, we will experience the same blessings that were bestowed on the great men and women who have gone before us in our faith. With them we will rejoice in God who does great things for us and, through us, for others.

It is only when we are open to God and others that we can truly rejoice.