Por Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB –

Often, the 4th Sunday of Advent occurs just a day or two before the Birthday of Jesus, and the readings this Sunday speak of the nearness of His coming. When the Wise Men inquired of Herod where the King of the Jews was born, Herod could not answer. Appointed king by the Romans, he was ignorant of Jewish tradition. His Jewish advisors had no such trouble, and they cited the first reading of today from the prophet Micah.  
 
Micah foretold the birth of the Messiah Savior King was made during the chaotic times of Jeremiah and Isaiah. He who would restore order was to be born in Bethlehem, once called Ephraim, a small town walking distance from Jerusalem. Micah knew, and we know well, where Jesus was born; the place David, too, was born. “A King of the line of David would come again,” said Micah. He would rule in God’s Name. We rejoice; Herod was frightened and furious.  
 
Hebrews points to an origin beyond the little town of Bethlehem, the ‘Fertile House of Bread.’ The Child’s origin is the Throne of God and the greatness of God’s Love for the human race! Thus, the Hebrews said, “We have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” That the sacrificial offering of the Son of God is “once for all” does not forbid that we celebrate God’s saving love and that of Jesus at the annual birthday celebration of Jesus, ‘Christ’s Mass”—Christmas—once every year. 
 
Jesus saved us by obedience to His Father in heaven. On earth, there was also an obedient ‘handmaid of the Lord,’ who had awaited the birth of her Child since the Annunciation. Like Mother Mary, we, too, during Advent, have sought to be obedient to God by waiting and abstaining from sin. Gabriel did not tell Mother Mary to visit her kinswoman, Elizabeth. He said merely that God had visited Elizabeth, who carried yet unborn John the Baptist. Mary took the angel’s word as an order, and she ‘hastened’ to visit.   
 
St. Luke has Elizabeth greeting Mary, pregnant for only days, and exclaiming, “How does this happen to me, that the mother of  my Lord should come to me?” The eternal Word of God was present in Mary from the moment He was conceived!