Monday, December 19, 2022

 Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

(Judges 13:2-7.24-25a; Luke 1:5-25)

Today’s readings sound definitively premodern.  Many couples today do not want to have any children, and most do not want more than one or two.  In these Scriptures Manoah’s wife and Elizabeth consider themselves disgraced for not having given birth.  Then they hear from God.

The two women will not only have children.  Their children will become outstanding in their respective times.  Manoah’s wife’s son Samson will wreak havoc on the Philistines, Israel’s archenemies in the period of the Judges.  John will prick the consciences of the entire nation of Israel to turn from sin.

Christmas celebrates human life.  It says, at its root, that human life is so wonderful that God assumed it to present Himself to the world.  We should embrace it not only for what it offers us as individuals but for what we might offer others.  Christ taught us as much.  His life testifies superlatively to the truth that life is not a commodity to be exploited but a gift to be shared.

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