By Sister Mara
For The Catholic Messenger
Advent Week 4
On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, God’s Word reminds us that the Savior, who offers us salvation, is already knocking at our door.
The psalmist implores the Lord to come and save us and to visit his vineyard. The vineyard that God had prepared for a long time so that he could finally offer us the wine of joy, to celebrate that God comes and stays with us every day until the end of time in a simple and humble bread, the Eucharist. The food of the poor.
Come, Lord, into our lives! Grant us your salvation, visit us and stay with us. The words of the psalmist were fulfilled prophetically because God in his eternal love contemplated and found a woman who overflowed with faith, hope and love. Theological virtues, required so that God could dwell in and be incarnated in our lives, as happened with Mary.
The Gospel urges us to respond to the needs of others, as did Mary, who hastened to visit Elizabeth. When we open ourselves to God’s grace, we cannot remain still; we are compelled to share the Good News, bringing God to the margins and the forgotten. It is a tangible way of proclaiming, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus.”
(Sister Mara — Sister Maria de los Angeles Gumara Mejia Chacon — is one of three Latin American women religious who are ministering in St. Joseph parishes in Columbus Junction and West Liberty.)
