6th day of Novena Mass for Christmas – Mary Visits Elizabeth (Lk 1:39-45)

Choose to serve over being served

Introduction

- In this Christmas season we receive gifts. Once a man got a beautiful ‘barong’ as a gift for the Christmas. He thought of wearing it in special occasion and kept it in the cupboard and forgot about it. After a year while he was cleaning his room he saw that barong which was by then destroyed by moats and rest. This ‘mistake’ of keeping the gift and destroying it, is done by many of us.

- God has given us lots of gifts – our talents, health, and other abilities. Are we eager to use them or share them? If not it will be destroyed eventually.

- In today’s gospel Mary shows the example of spending her time and energy for a person who is in need and thus using the gifts of God in a meaningful way. Thus she proved to be ‘Great” or “blessed”.

Body

- Greatness or blessedness is achieved through two things;

1. Service

§ The example of Jesus washing the feet of the disciple during the last supper is a model of achieving greatness through serving the least of my brother and sister.

§ Mother Theresa of Calcutta became a great person by service, by using the God given talents and abilities for the poor and needy.

§ Mary shows us today the lessons of service, by serving Elizabeth, even though Mary was pregnant.

2. Other orientedness

§ An old wisdom – “If you want to be somebody, put others before yourself”

§ We are born with ego-centeredness. As we grow to maturity we learn to be other-oriented. That is why the children find happiness in receiving the gifts while the elderly find pleasure in giving gifts.

§ Greatness or blessedness depends on how far we give preference to ‘others’ in our life.

- The blocks that may hinder us in the growth towards this greatness can be;

· Laziness

§ Laziness is the mother of many other evil. It is a habit of postponing for some other day/time.

§ It is one of the trick that satan inspires in the heart of the good people so that no good will happen.

· Selfishness

§ Good relationships are built on ‘other-centeredness’.

§ We are called as a disciple of Jesus to share our life for others as our master did on the Cross. Jesus gave himself totally for us, and continues to nourish us by his body and blood in the Eucharist.

· Pride

§ It is against humility. Humility means accepting all the blessings that have been showered into our lives with a thankful heart and share it with others.

§ Mary would have thought – ‘I am the mother God’s son. Therefore why should I go to serve Elizabeth?’, but she never thought in this way, instead rushed to serve her cousin.

Conclusion

- God has called us to be great / blessed.

- Let us remember that blessedness consists in serve and other orientedness.

- Let us avoid Laziness, Selfishness and Pride from our lives and prepare for Christmas.

6th Day of Simbang Gabi – Mary Visits Elizabeth

Passing the Light

Introduction

- Conversation between a priest and the catechism students (for students December is a month of shopping and gift giving. For them it is a month when the Santa Claus comes with gifts from icy mountains in a cart by the rain dears. They forgot the coming of Jesus from God the Father, through Virgin Mary)

- Christmas is a season to pass the light of tradition to next generation.

Content

- Why the Santa Claus is getting more importance than Child Jesus? It is an output of the consumerist culture. The shopping malls want Santa Claus to be in front of their malls because child Jesus who is simple and humble, born in a poor situation is not the right person to promote their business. It can even badly affect the sales. Instead, the image of Santa Claus who is in good dress, fat enough and with full of gifts would improve their sales. There is nothing wrong in shopping during Christmas and exchanging the gifts. But the import element of Christmas is the coming of Jesus who is simple and humble and was born in a manger as a son of poor family.

- The present situation should be critically analyzed to see the motivations behind the Christmas celebrations.

- We, the grownups are the one who has to show the right spirit of tradition to the next generation.

- In the OT community, they had a table fellowship at every major feast where the eldest of the family explained the tradition and the saving power of God to the younger generation. That is how they passed their tradition.

- We have many rich traditions in relation to Christmas like Simbang Gabi, Aguinaldo Mass, Mesa De Gallo, Noche Buena, etc. These are the good traditions passed to us by our forefathers in order to give to the next generation.

- How to pass these good traditions to next generation.

1. Living the good traditions

2. Being faithful to the essence of tradition

3. Passing it to the next generation by motivating them to follow it.

Conclusion

- Bring our children to the Light of God is our duty.

- Mary shared the Light that was given to her to Elizabeth and John. It removed their darkness and filled them with Holy Spirit.

- Let us pass the light that is entrusted to us by our forefathers.