Christmas! One word that evokes so much emotion and so many memories. Trees, family, gifts. Whenever I think of Christmas, I can’t help but remember my cousin Mary. She and I grew up together. Born only a year apart, we are like sister and brother.

We have lit the fourth and last candle on the Advent Wreath. The Season of Advent is quickly coming to a close, and very soon we shall celebrate Emmanuel, God is with us.

One of the prominent figures in our celebration of the birth of Jesus is his mother Mary. When we see Mary in the scripture we immediately think of the young woman who had an angel appear and ask her to be the mother of the savior. We have heard of the tremendous faith of her response to God to allow His will to be done. Mary has always been seen as the model of the faith filled person, the total disciple of God.

If we could travel in time, we would journey back 2000 years ago to ancient Israel. When we arrived, we would discover that the Jewish people were under the control of the Roman Empire, which they despised. They kept praying to God to send them a messiah who would free them from the Romans and bring peace to the world.

John the Baptist is a very unique and colorful character in our Advent scripture readings. John was chosen by God to be the one who proclaims who Jesus is and calls all to repent, believe in and follow Jesus.

From his mother Elizabeth’s womb, John leapt for joy when he encountered Jesus in Mary’s womb as she visited her cousin Elizabeth. Through my sisters, I have had the privilege of feeling the kick of a baby in its mother’s womb and it was a blessing and joy to feel the kick of new life and the potential that new life brings to the world. So, I know what a kick feels like, as does every mother, but I can only imagine what a leap feels like! That is the joy John felt when he encountered Jesus, the Savior of the world. From his mother’s womb, John was proclaiming that Jesus was our Savior.

We have heard these words so many times we may overlook the significance of what they mean. The birth of Jesus came about because of the cooperation of ordinary human beings. We know that Mary was an ordinary young girl - chosen to do extraordinary things - but she was still ordinary in the sense that she was of the usual stock and family and characteristics of her time. Joseph, too, was an ordinary, hard-working laborer, a well-respected member of the community but definitely an “ordinary Joe” of his day. Both were rather remarkable for their “unremarkableness.” 

At the end of our recent election I heard people of both sides saying T.G.I.O. – Thank God it’s over. They were expressing the weariness of a long and stressful election cycle. At this time of the year when advertisements barrage us from every direction about buying for Christmas and the countdown of shopping days to Christmas, I am sure that the annual question of “When will it be over?” is occurring in the wearied minds of many.

We are all familiar with the saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” In today’s gospel, the prophet John the Baptist echoes clearly this truth when he confronts the phoniness and externalism of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

St. Augustine recounts in Book VIII of his Confessions the pivotal point in his conversion process:

Stung into action, I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for on leaving it I had put down there the book of the Apostle’s letters. I snatched it up, opened it and read in silence the passage on which my eyes first lighted...