REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF ADVENT 19TH DECEMBER 2023

REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF ADVENT  19TH DECEMBER 2023

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a; Ps.71; Luke 1:5-25

Jesus comes to make the Impossible Possible

As Jesus’ coming draws near, the aroma (foretaste) of his mission is perceived in today’s readings. Particularly, Jesus came to save man by gaining for him pardon for sins and reconciliation with God the Father. This is something only God can do. If another could do that which Christ came to do, then his coming will bear no uniqueness. Now, sin is ultimately an offence against God. This is something all men are guilty of. Therefore, man cannot be of help to his fellow men. Only God can forgive sins.

In the first reading of today, an angel of the Lord appeared to a woman who was married to Manoah and was barren. Her situation was one that no one could help. When the angel made known to the woman the coming and mission of a son through her, she believed because she recognized the speaker to be a man of God whose countenance was like that of an angel of God. Only God could make her conceive because man’s help has proven worthless.

The same aroma of Jesus’ salvation is presented in the gospel reading. Elizabeth has been barren for many years. She and her husband Zachariah have hoped against hope for the fruit of the womb. Apart from the fact that man’s help too have proven fruitless, age was no longer on their side as Elizabeth was exceeding the age of childbearing.

Little wonder Zachariah asked the angel of the Lord how possible is it for Elizabeth to bear a child. It will be possible not due to the intervention of any midwife or medical expert but by the grace of God. So, the long years of waiting by Manoah and the wife, as well as by Zachariah and Elizabeth were God’s way of allowing man to exhaust his helpless options. It is for this reason that Jesus too will delay going to see his friend Lazarus when he was sick until Lazarus finally died.

Beloved, God has been employing this instrument of delay in manifesting His glory. It was so for Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Hannah. Stop interpreting long prayer request as God’s unwillingness to answer. In prayer, we ask according to our judgment of what is good; but God answers according to his judgment of what is best.

Provided God is involved, delay is not denial. He comes to do for us what man cannot do; He comes to manifest Himself as God indeed. Like the mother of Samson, we need to truly believe that the one we await is capable of turning impossibilities into possibilities. Without this believe, our expectation of the Messiah will lack its essential ingredient.