General. Christmasday will now follow in quick succession. Today’s Collect is a repeat of the Angelus prayer which calls to mind two mysteries, God sending His Christ to become man and the Resurrection. We celebrate and commemorate both sacraments in the Eucharist, at the end of which we shall have the spirit to go out and live and spread what we have received. The Resurrection is an event which also touches us personally. It is through our personal sufferings (passion and death) that we may arrive, as from now, in the glory of being resurrected from among the dead. This way, we would be celebrating God’s mystery of sending His Son to save us.

Micah. The Lord is coming and He will be mighty as God Himself because He is God. The reading emphasizes the grandness of the Lord Who is to come and it is mainly intended as a historical reference to the Bethlehem prophecy.

Hebrews.. This reading is an interpretation of an early author as to the context in which God’s entry through His Son into the history of salvation matches the thoughts entertained by the Jews about expiation. Whereas the concept of sacrifice reigned in earlier times as a way of making oneself pleasing to God, now, the author explains, it is a matter of obedience which is the more important. Doing God’s will is also a sacrifice in its own manner, but one which also involves us who have been sanctified through the offering up of Christ’s body, once and for ever, on the Cross. Our obedience also expiates our sins while showing our faith in God and our readiness to offer up ourselves in sacrifice to Him.

St Luke expands with sentiment Mary’s feelings throughout the Gospel story. This recount of Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth six months before herself giving birth to Jesus, gives a time context to the story and puts Mary in dialogue with Elizabeth. Blessed is Mary among women for having accepted conception through the Holy Spirit (notwithstanding what people who did not know the truth might have said) and for having believed (a matter of faith) in the fulfilment of the words of the Lord. Again, faith and obedience are the key-words which launch us straight to Christmasday.

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