Ember Friday after Gaudete, The Third Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 17, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 1:39-47 (NKJV)
1:39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
46 And Mary said:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
Devotion
Yesterday’s lection from John 1 instructs the Church concerning the testimony of St. John at our Lord’s Baptism. Today’s lection teaches us concerning the first time when the forerunner and the Christ met, and the words of St. Elizabeth at the time of that meeting.
St. Luke makes it clear that St. Elizabeth’s words are not merely those of an excited, expectant mother; rather, “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Therefore, we have a clear testimony in Holy Scripture to the faith present in even the smallest children: “For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.” Is this a miracle? Of course. Faith is always a miracle which the Holy Spirit works through Word and Sacrament.
The joy of St. John was a response to hearing the greeting of St. Mary, who, in turn, had come to see that which the angel of the Lord had made known to her concerning Elizabeth, her relative.
We should not marvel that our Lord and St. John did not know each other during the intervening years, for our Lord spent years in exile in Egypt, and we know nothing concerning the life of St. John through the decades preceding his ministry. When the time came for St. John to proclaim the Christ, he did so. We rejoice at the revelation of the divine Word.
Prayer: Stir up Thy might, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and come, that they who trust in Thy loving kindness may be the more speedily freed from all adversity, Who livest and reignest, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for Gaudete: Lord, we beseech Thee, give ear to our prayers, and lighten the darkness of our hearts, by Thy gracious visitation; Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for Advent: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
