Tuesday of the
Fourth Week in Advent
(II
Samuel &:1-5.8b-12.14a.16; Luke 1:67-79)
Once on the day after Christmas two American missionaries
traveled to a remote Honduran village. When
they attended a meeting of the youth group in church, one of the missionaries asked
the adolescents about their Christmas gifts.
To the person everyone responded by saying that he or she would say
special prayers to Jesus and behave more obediently at home. The answers confused the missionary who
expected to hear of home-crafted gifts, but the families were evidently too
poor to provide even that. Of course,
the actual Christmas gifts were much more valuable than anything that could be
bought or made because they represented the response the Savior elicits from us.
The first reading today tells of another unexpected
gift. David wants to provide a place for
the Ark of the Covenant as his bequest to God.
As worthy as the idea is, God is the one who will gift David and all
humanity. He will give the king an heir
to bring peace to the people in a reign that will never end. Christians hear this promise as a prophecy of
Jesus Christ in whose kingdom they have thrived.
It is often hard to avoid Christmas merchandizing. We want to express our gratitude to others and
they to us with something tangible. Of
course, this is not necessarily the trivialization of Christ’s birth, but we
can improve upon the custom. We can take
real care in what we give – something personally edifying, for example. We also can pray for every person who does
something for us and include with each gift a prayer for the receiver.
