THURSDAY 21st DECEMBER 2023
Luke 1, 39-45
“Mary set out and went in haste to the hill country …. Blessed are you who have believed, for what the Lord has said to you will be fulfilled”.
On receiving the angel’s message, Mary sets out on her journey. Thus Mary sets out on a journey of faith and trust in the Lord. When she enters Zechariah’s house, she will be proclaimed blessed because she has believed. Mary is presented to us today as a model of a believer.
In a few days’ time we will see God as a child in Bethlehem. It takes a good dose of faith to adore God in the cry of a newborn baby, in the swaddling clothes of a baby, in a little creature clinging to the breast of a young mother, in a tiny child lying in a manger…. And God is there. He is Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Accompany and let yourself be accompanied today by Mary. May she teach you to believe and may she also teach you to see God in the small, in the humble, even if wrapped in swaddling clothes. Ask her to help you prepare for Christmas by focusing on what is essential and putting what is secondary in the background. The important thing is the Child, not the swaddling clothes.
Good day to you.
Antonio Sanjuan Cmf
