Our Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is the closing prayer for the Angelus. Maybe it's the other way around. Either way, this prayer is one faithful Roman Catholics don't just say daily, but three times a day. During Easter, we recite or sing Regina Caeli instead of the Angelus.
Beginning as it does with "The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit," followed by a Hail Mary, which, in turn, is followed by our Blessed Mother's fiat: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word," the Angelus is all about the Incarnation. So is the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
For Year C of the Sunday lectionary, our Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent comes from the first chapter of Saint Luke's Gospel. It follows the stories about the previously barren Elizabeth conceiving John the Baptist and her kinswoman, Mary's, miraculous conception of Jesus. Known as "the Visitation," this Gospel episode is the Second Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary.
Love of neighbor is the fruit of the Joyful Mystery of the Visitation. These two women were happy for each other. Elizabeth also recognizes and honors the freedom with which Mary assented to God's plan. "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb" are words with which we're very familiar. As Gabriel foretold about the Blessed Virgin, "all generations will call you blessed." This began with that very generation.
Life is a miracle. It seems we increasingly see it as a burden. Human beings are the point at which creation becomes conscious of itself. Only we ponder the mystery of life, its meaning and purpose. When observed, Advent is a time to reflect on these things, these big questions. In a real sense, history both before and even after Christ's coming is Advent. Life is an Advent, an expectant waiting.
The Visitation, by James B. Janknegt, 2016?
Chatting with a friend online earlier today, the subject of Advent came up. Agreeing that we both really enjoy this season and try to observe it, we noted the advent nature of life, and the subject of hope came up. Insisting, as is my wont, that hope and optimism aren't the same thing at all, my friend "sometimes I feel like my hope comes from my pessimism." This summarizes my relationship with hope very well- it comes pretty much exclusively from my pessimism.
In my view, pessimism is what differentiates hope from optimism. I revisited something today from an article by Anglican bishop David Welbourne that appeared in the Church Times back in 2020. He wrote about an interview playwright Dennis Potter gave to television journalist, author, and Member of Parliament Melvyn Bragg shortly before the former's death. Potter was a man of Christian faith and Bragg, who was not, asserted that faith was merely dressing on a wound. I guess he was referring to the wound of death, the awareness of the shortness of life, something like that. "No," replied Potter, "it is the wound, faith is the wound."
Jumping ahead chronologically is Luke and liturgically, the righteous old man Simeon tells the Galilean virgin that faith is wound by letting her know that her heart would be pierced. When praying the Rosary, I have little narratives for each Mystery. For this, the Fourth Joyful Mystery, the fruit of which is obedience, I use the phrase "hope through suffering."
As our reading from Hebrews tells us, in coming to do His Father's will, Jesus did away with the offerings and sacrifices that constituted the ritual sacrifices of the Temple. Leaping all the way to the twenty-second chapter of the Gospel According to Saint Luke, we see what the Father’s will was. Praying Jesus implores, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done." This is hard to comprehend, like a young woman from Nazareth agreeing to bear the Son of God.
I think this petition from the Intercessions for Evening Prayer I of the Fourth Sunday of Advent rounds this reflection off beautifully:
In your life on earth, you came to die as a man
-save us from everlasting death
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