Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Advent
(I Samuel 1:24-28; Luke 1:46-56)
The movie It's a Wonderful Life has more than a holiday ending to recommend it as an all-time Christmas classic. More crucially, the film reflects all the hope that the child Jesus brings into the world. The schemes of the villain Potter are vanquished while poor people are enabled to live with dignity. Most of all, God comes to the help of his faithful servant, George Bailey, in his hour of desperation. Life is, indeed, wonderful because God has entered into it.
What director Frank Capra puts on film, Mary proclaims in the gospel today. She sings of how in sending His son into the world, God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. Mary makes these claims after pondering in her heart all that the angel Gabriel and Elizabeth tell her. She is the New Testament’s first human evangelizer who after hearing the word of God reinterprets its meaning for everyday lives.
