December 12/Second Saturday of Advent
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ~ Luke 1.41
I will never forget the ten-week ultrasound for my fourth child (now in college and with several inches on me). As Fred the technician zeroed in on the tiny fetal image, I saw the baby — at that time the size of a fingernail — bouncing around with impossible exuberance. “Look — that baby’s doing the mambo,” the technician chuckled. For the three of us — Fred, my husband, and me — it was a moment of pure joy. I like to think of Elizabeth’s unborn baby, the future prophet John the Baptist, dancing with like delight in today’s Gospel. Hearing his mother greet her cousin Mary, the bearer of Christ, the infant “leaped” for joy. Luke uses a Greek verb that designates not garden-variety jumping, but the exuberant springing of a young lamb, as in Psalm 114: The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. No matter what our workaday worries are — and certainly we all have many of them right now — the joy of encounter with Christ is contagious. From the unborn John to Elizabeth, who is “filled with the Holy Spirit,” to the rejoicing Mary, whose soul proclaims the greatness of God, when Christ truly indwells our hearts, we cannot help but communicate our joy to others. The 16th-century English scholar and biblical translator William Tyndale vividly described this joy: “Evangelion (that we call gospel) is a Greek word, and signifieth good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that maketh a man’s heart glad, and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy.” As Christmas draws near, let us shake off the “corona doldrums” and sing, dance, and skip like lambs as we share with others the good news of Christ’s coming.
LORD of all created things, Fill me with the joy of your loving presence so that I may spread it in turn to others. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121220.cfm
To hear the Guildford Cathedral choir sing William Byrd’s “Magnificat,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdJjG8W6b3c
