God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

 From today, 17 to 23 December, the "major Advent holidays", "privileged Advent holidays", begin, characterised by a distinctive element which are the "O antiphons" recited or sung during Vespers. They all begin with the invocation "O" followed by a messianic title taken from the prophecies of the Old Testament to express the expectation of the Saviour: Today the 17th proclaims "O Wisdom", on the 18th "O Adonai" and so on each day culminating on 23 December with "O Emmanuel". On these days the liturgy is more solemn with specific readings and prayers that orient the faithful towards the birth of Christ. Happy preparation for the Holy Christmas of. Christ!

For this period I have prepared the commentaries for the Fourth Sunday of Advent 22 December, for the Christmas Masses (night and day), for the Feast of the Holy Family Sunday 29 December, for the Feast of the Mother of God, 1 January, for the Epiphany, 6 January, and for the conclusion of Christmas time on the Sunday of the Baptism of Jesus 12 January. Today I send the commentaries for 22 December 2024 IV Sunday of Advent.

First Reading from the book of the prophet Micah 5, 1-4a

 *In certain moments it becomes difficult to hope 

The prophets in the Old Testament always have recourse to two types of language: that of rebukes and warnings for those who forget the Covenant with God and its demands, because with their own hands they prepare for ruin; that of support for those who remain faithful to the Covenant so that they do not lose heart in the face of adversity. The first reading today clearly recalls the language of encouragement, and one senses that the people are going through a critical period, almost on the verge of throwing in the towel because they have the impression that they have been abandoned by God.  He even goes so far as to say that all the promises of happiness renewed over the centuries were just fine words, since the ideal king foretold and promised was never born and perhaps never will be. It is unclear whether the author of this text is the prophet Micah because it is not clear exactly in which historical period we are in. If it is Micah, a peasant prophet like Amos and a disciple of Isaiah, we are in the 8th century B.C. in the region of Jerusalem, at a time when the Assyrian empire posed a great threat and the kings of Israel bore little resemblance to the Messiah-king they were expecting: it was therefore easy to fall into the temptation of feeling abandoned. For reasons of language, style and vocabulary, one is inclined to believe that this is a much later text and inserted later in the book of Micah. In this case, the discouragement is motivated by the fact that, after the Babylonian exile and uninterrupted foreign domination, the throne of Jerusalem no longer existed and therefore there was no descendant of David. The prophet takes up the promise that a king will be born from David's descendants who will be a shepherd, will reign with justice and will bring peace; a peace that will cover the whole of humanity in time: 'His origins are from ancient times, from the remotest days' and in space: 'They will dwell securely, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth'. This emphasis on universalism (v. 3) suggests that this preaching (included in the book of Micah) does not belong to the prophet Micah, but to one of his later disciples, since the universalism of God's plan and the strict monotheism that characterises it were only understood during the exile in Babylon. All the more reason to remember the promises concerning the Messiah, and the prophet (whether it is Micah or another does not change the meaning) encourages God's people by saying that even if you feel forsaken, you must be certain that God's project will be fulfilled; 'the day will surely come when she who is to give birth will come' because God is faithful to his promises. Speaking of 'she who is to give birth', he insisted that that moment was only a time of apparent abandonment in the course of human history. Furthermore, by proclaiming: 'And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, so small to be among the villages of Judah, out of you shall come forth the one who is to rule Israel', the prophet recalled that the promised Messiah - prophecy from Nathan to David (2Sam.7) - would be a true descendant of David, because in Bethlehem the prophet Samuel, on God's command, went to choose a king from among the eight sons of Jesse (1Sam.16). For Jews accustomed to the sacred scriptures, Bethlehem immediately evoked the promise of the Messiah, and the prophet joins Bethlehem with the term 'Ephratah' meaning 'fruitful', the name of one of the clans in the Bethlehem region.  Later the whole of Bethlehem is identified with Ephratah and even so the prophet is keen to bring out the contrast between the great and proud Jerusalem and the humble hamlet of Bethlehem, 'the smallest among the clans of Judah' because it is in littleness and frailty that the power of God is manifested, who chooses the small to realise great projects. This prophecy of Micah about the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem was well known to the Jewish people, as is evident in the episode of the Magi visiting Jesus (Mt 2:6): the evangelist Matthew recounts that the scribes quoted Micah's passage to King Herod to direct them to Bethlehem.  At the time, Jesus' contemporaries knew that he was the Nazarene and it was inconceivable that a Galilean was the Messiah. The fourth evangelist also notes that when discussions began about the identity of Jesus, some said: 'Perhaps he is the Christ', but others replied: 'the Christ cannot come from Galilee, Micah said it clearly' (Jn 7:40-43). The short text of the first reading closes as follows: "He himself will be peace": shalom is the peace that only the Messiah can give to humanity

Responsorial psalm 79 (80) 2ac. 3bc, 15-16, 18-19

 *God takes care of his vineyard  

The mention of the cherubim, in Hebrew Kéroubim (Two cherubim towered over the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem), statues of winged animals with the head of a man and the body and legs of a lion, symbolise the throne of God.  "From thee nevermore shall we depart, make us live again and we shall call upon thy name": we are in a penitential celebration and "nevermore" constitutes a resolution: "From thee nevermore shall we depart" means that the people recognise their unfaithfulness and consider their evils as a consequence. The rest of the psalm will detail these misfortunes, but already here it says: "Awaken your power and come and save us", which indicates a deep need to be saved. In difficulties the people turn to their God who has never forsaken them and plead with him, invoking him with two titles: the shepherd of Israel and the vinedresser, images that evoke solicitude, constant attention, inspired by daily life in Palestine, where shepherds and vinedressers were central figures in economic life. The first metaphor is that of the Shepherd of Israel. In the court language of the countries of the ancient Middle East, the title of shepherd was attributed to kings; in the Bible, however, it is first and foremost attributed to God, and they called the kings of Israel 'shepherds of the people' only by proxy since the true shepherd of Israel is God. In Psalm 22/23 we read: "The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. In the book of Genesis, when Jacob blesses his son Joseph, he invokes "the God in whose presence my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked, the God who has been my shepherd from the time I existed until now" (Gen 48:15). And when he blesses his twelve sons, he does so "in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel" (Gen 49:24). Isaiah also uses this image: "Behold your God!... Like a shepherd, he shepherds his flock, with his arm he gathers the lambs, he carries them on his breast, he gently leads the mother sheep" (Isaiah 40:9-11). And the people of Israel are God's flock as we read in Psalm 94/95: 'Yes, he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock he leads with his hand'. It is a psalm that is a meditation on the Exodus where Israel first experienced God's solicitude because, without him, they would not have survived. For God gathered his people as a shepherd gathers his flock, enabling them to overcome every obstacle. And today in the responsorial psalm when it says: 'You, shepherd of Israel, listen', it is to the fundamental experience of the Exodus and the liberation from Egypt that we refer.

In the second metaphor, the psalm calls God the vinedresser: "God of hosts return! Look down from heaven and see: visit this vineyard, protect what your right hand has planted'. The psalm is inspired by Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard: "I want to sing for my beloved the song of my beloved for his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He had spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted fine vines in it. In the midst of it he had built a tower and he had also dug a vat' (Is 5:1-2). This is probably a popular song, which was sung at weddings as a symbol of the young bridegroom's care for his beloved, and this psalm takes up the image to describe God's solicitude as we read in verses (9-12) not taken up in the responsorial psalm: "You uprooted a vineyard from Egypt, you drove out the nations to plant it. You prepared the ground for it, you rooted it so that it filled the land. Its shadow covered the mountains, its branches the highest cedars; it extended its shoots as far as the sea and its buds as far as the River".  The Exodus, the entry into the Promised Land, the Covenant with God, the conquest of the land and the expansion under David's reign, in all these glories Israel recognises the work of God, of his continuous presence and care. The growth of Israel was so extraordinary that we can speak of an age of glory: "His shadow covered the mountains, his branches the highest cedars", thinking of David's conquests that extended the borders of the kingdom to unprecedented heights. 

The honeymoon did not last long because already in Isaiah the song recounted a happy love at the beginning, which ended badly because of the unfaithfulness of the beloved (cf. Is 5:2-4). And in the end, the vinedresser abandons his vineyard (cf. Is 5:5-6). In today's psalm we find the same adventure of a betrayed love: Israel is spoken of and its infidelities are idolatry with all kinds of transgressions of God's Law that bring consequences as one can well understand when reading the whole psalm.  I limit myself only to a few verses not found in the responsorial psalm. "Why have you cut down its hedge? Everyone who passes by plunders it; the boar of the forest devastates it, and the animals of the fields graze it' (Ps 80:13-14). And shortly afterwards:

"It is destroyed, set on fire" (v. 17). And again: "You have made us the mockery of our neighbours, our enemies laugh at us" (v. 7). In other words, we are in a period of foreign occupation and who the enemies are, the story does not say; they are, however, compared to the animals that ravage the vineyard - such as wild boars, considered unclean animals. Israel acknowledges the guilt for which it was punished by God and the psalm pleads for forgiveness, saying: 'How long wilt thou remain angry against the prayers of thy people? You have made us eat bread of tears, you have given us tears in abundance to drink' (v. 5-6). The psalm reflects the state of theology at the time when it was believed that everything, happiness as well as misfortune, was the work of God.  Certainly today, thanks to patient divine pedagogy, there has been progress in the understanding of revelation and we have understood that God respects human freedom and certainly does not control every detail of history. However, this psalm offers a magnificent lesson in faith and humility: the people recognise their infidelities and make a firm resolution never to repeat them again:

"From you never again shall we depart" and turns to God imploring the power of conversion:

"Let us live and we will call upon your name".

Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews 10, 5-10

 *Availability is worth more than all sacrifices

In these few lines, this expression occurs twice: "Behold, I come... to do your will, O God", taken from Psalm 39/40, a psalm of thanksgiving. A brief commentary on this psalm begins by describing the mortal danger from which Israel was delivered: "With patience I hoped in the Lord: he stooped over me, he heard my cry. He brought me out of the pit of death, out of the mud and mire; he established my feet on the rock, he made my steps sure'. After giving thanks for the deliverance from Egypt, he continues: "On my lips he has placed a new song, a praise to our God"; then: "You wanted neither sacrifice nor offering, but you gave me a body. You did not like either holocausts or sacrifices for sin. Then I said: 'Behold, I come, my God, to do your will'". The message is clear: the best way to give thanks is to offer God not sacrifices, but the willingness to do his will. The response that God expects is: 'Here I am', typical of God's great servants. Abraham, called by God at the time of Isaac's sacrifice, answered simply: 'Here I am' and his willingness is an example for the children of Israel (Gen 22): although Isaac was not immolated, willingness is worth more than all sacrifices. Moses answers 'Here I am' before the burning bush and his willingness transformed a simple shepherd even clumsy in speech into the great leader of Israel. Samuel, centuries later, in the time of the Judges, with his 'Here I am' became Israel's great prophet (1 Sam 3:1-9) who as an adult had the courage to say to King Saul: 'Does the Lord like holocausts and sacrifices as much as obedience to his word? No! Obedience is worth more than sacrifice, listening more than the fat of rams" (1 Sam 15:22).

In the Bible, the title 'servant' of God is the greatest compliment for a believer, just as in the first centuries of the Christian era, in Greek-speaking countries, it was common to give children the name 'Christodule' (Christodoulos), meaning servant of Christ. The insistence on availability becomes for everyone first of all encouraging because God only asks for our availability and all of us, despite our human limitations, can become useful for the Kingdom of God. At the same time, this insistence is demanding because if God calls us to serve Him, we cannot make excuses such as incompetence, ignorance, unworthiness, weariness, etc.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews applies Psalm 39/40 to Jesus Christ, who says: "You wanted neither sacrifice nor offering, but a body you have prepared for me. Thou hast pleased neither burnt offerings nor sacrifices for sin. Then I said: 'Behold, I come to do, O God, your will.  Total availability that did not begin on the evening of Holy Thursday, but embraces the whole of life, day after day, from the very beginning because "entering the world, Christ says ... a body you have prepared for me ... behold, I am coming" (vv5-7). 

To say that willingness is worth more than all sacrifices does not mean that sacrifices are abolished, but they lose their value when they are not accompanied by total willingness to serve God and man. Moreover, in Israel, in the context of the struggle against idolatries, the prophets insisted on the 'sacrifice of the lips', a prayer and praise to be addressed exclusively to the God of Israel, since it happened that, while offering costly sacrifices in the temple of Jerusalem, some continued to turn to other gods. Offering to God the "sacrifice of the lips" indicates the decision to belong to Him unreservedly, and this, as we read in Hosea, was worth more than all animal sacrifices: "Instead of bulls, we will offer you as a sacrifice the words of our lips" (Hos 14:3). Psalm 49/50 also reiterates this: 'Offer to God as a sacrifice your praise and make your vows to the Most High... He who offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me' (Ps 49/50.14.23).

Jacob is regarded as an example of absolute availability to God, despite his wrongdoings, because his life bears witness to a profound inner transformation and an intense search for God. Jacob's journey represents the spiritual journey of every believer: from a life characterised by deceit and strife to a life of faith, of encounter with God and adherence to His plan. These are Jacob's misdeeds: from his youth, he commits several questionable actions: he deceives his brother Esau in order to obtain the birthright in exchange for a plate of lentils (Gen 25:29-34); he cheats his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing due to the first-born son, with the help of his mother Rebecca (Gen 27), he manipulates his uncle Laban to enrich himself during the time he works for him (Gen 30:25-43). This is his openness to God: despite these behaviours, Jacob is open to the encounter with God and shows an increasing readiness to allow himself to be transformed. His story is punctuated by episodes that show the change of his heart: the dream of Bethel (Gen 28:10-22): after deceiving his brother and fleeing, Jacob has a vision of a ladder connecting earth to heaven. In this dream, God renews to him the promises made to Abraham and Isaac. Here he promises: 'If God will be with me and protect me on this journey ... then the Lord will be my God' (Gen 28:20-21).

Then at Peniel (Gen 32:23-32) he wrestles all night with a mysterious man, who turns out to be God himself or one of his messengers and receives a new name, Israel, which means 'He who wrestles with God'. It is the symbol of a profound transformation: "I will not let you go unless you bless me!" (Gen 32:27). Here emerges his total willingness to depend on God, to recognise his need to be blessed and guided. Reconciliation with Esau follows (Gen 33) and this shows that inner change produces concrete fruits in human relationships. The thirst for God: what distinguishes Jacob is not his moral perfection, but his thirst for God: he always sought Him even when his actions were dictated by personal ambition and this constant search for God makes him an example of helpfulness because he appears to be a man who, despite his weaknesses and mistakes, always desired God's blessing and presence in his life. His story teaches that: God does not choose the perfect, but those who are willing to allow themselves to be transformed; our imperfections are not an obstacle to God's call, as long as we are willing to walk with Him; availability to God is more important than outward sacrifices or works, because God looks at the heart and the desire for conversion. In summary, Jacob is an example of absolute availability to God because, despite his misdeeds, he accepted the divine call, fought for God's blessing, and allowed himself to be transformed by that encounter, becoming one of the fundamental patriarchs of Israel's faith.Gospel according to Luke 1:39-45

*You are blessed among all women  

In Luke's gospel, after the two accounts of the Annunciation: to Zechariah for the birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary for the birth of Jesus, there follows the account of the "Visitation", which at first glance appears to be a simple family scene, but we must not be deceived: Luke writes a profoundly theological work, and to better understand it we must give due value to the central phrase: "Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she cried out with a loud voice" (Lk 1:41-42). It is therefore the Holy Spirit who speaks and announces from the very beginning the great news of the whole of Luke's Gospel: the one who has just been conceived is the 'Lord'. The Spirit inspires Elizabeth: 'Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb': this means that God acts in you and through you, God acts in your Son and through your Son. As always, the Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to discover, in our lives and in the lives of others, the signs of God's work. Luke is not unaware that this phrase from Elizabeth partly echoes one we find in the book of Judith (Jdt 13:18-19): when after beheading the general Holofernes, Judith returns from the enemy camp, she is greeted by Ozia who says to her: 'You are blessed among all women, and blessed is the Lord God'. Mary is here compared to Judith, a parallelism that suggests two things: the expression 'Blessed art thou among all women' makes it clear that Mary is the woman who guarantees mankind ultimate victory over evil. As for the conclusion of the sentence (for Judith 'blessed is the Lord God', while for Mary 'blessed is the fruit of thy womb'), it announces that the Lord himself is the fruit of her womb: this is why Luke's account is not just a picture of family joy, but something much deeper. In the face of Zechariah's muteness, who had become mute because he had doubted the angel's words announcing the birth of John the Baptist, the power of Elizabeth's word full of the Holy Spirit appears in full contrast. John the Baptist, still in his mother's womb, already full of the Holy Spirit manifests his joy: Elizabeth says that he "leapt for joy in my womb" when he heard Mary's voice. The angel had foretold this to Zechariah: 'Fear not, Zechariah, your prayer has been answered. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. You will be in joy and exultation, and many will rejoice at his birth ... he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb" (Lk 1:13-15).

We recall the words of Elizabeth: "To what do I owe that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:43). This sentence also recalls an episode from the Old Testament, namely the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:2-11). When David became king in Jerusalem and built a worthy palace, he decided to transfer the Ark of the Covenant to the new capital. Filled with fervour and awe, he organised a festive procession with all the best men of Israel, about thirty thousand, and with all the people he set out to bring up the Ark of God... They carried it in a new chariot... David and all the house of Israel danced before the Lord to the sound of harps, harps, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals (cf. 2 Sam 6:5). On the way, however, a man who had touched the Ark without being authorised to do so died immediately and, seized with fear, David exclaimed: "How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?" (2 Sam 6:9). He then decided to leave the Ark in the house of Obed-Edom, where it remained for three months and then, as word spread that the presence of the Ark brought blessing to that house, David decided to complete the journey and so David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord amidst songs of joy and to the sound of the horn (cf. 2 Sam 6:15) and full of joy, David also danced before the Ark "with all his might" (cf. 2 Sam 6:14).

Many details unite the account of the Visitation with the journey of the Ark of the Covenant: Both journeys, that of the Ark and that of Mary, take place in the same region, the hills of Judea; the Ark enters the house of Obed-Edom and brings blessing; Mary enters the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth and brings joy; the Ark stays three months in the house of Obed-Edom; Mary stays three months with Elizabeth; David dances before the Ark; John the Baptist "exults with joy" before Mary who carries the Lord in her. Since all this is not accidental, the evangelist invites us to contemplate Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was the place of God's Presence, and Mary carries within her, in a mysterious way, the divine Presence, and from that moment God dwells forever in our humanity: "The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us" (Jn 1:14).