Dear Friends in Christ,
‘O Emmanuel, you are our king and judge, the One whom the people await and their Saviour. O come and save us, Lord our God!’ St. Luke narrates his Gospel with beauty and charm, jamming his masterpiece full of rich fare for us to feed upon. 
Today we celebrate the feminine genius of Mary and Elizabeth. These two giants of faith reveal in their encounter with the Holy Spirit so much of what it means to live a life of faith. These two women were joined in a sisterhood of faith; they were both on an adventure on which they were overshadowed and inspired by the Holy Spirit.
What is the feminine genius so clearly on display to us in today’s readings? Perhaps it is best captured by the way in which both women were blessed by God because of the simplicity and straightforwardness of their faith. We could say that faith came naturally to them. They were ready to embrace all that God was doing in their lives. They were both midwives to God’s extraordinary grace being poured out at this very special moment in history. The motif of their faith is joy. So infectious was their joy that even the bay in Elizabeth’s womb (John the Baptist) leapt with this same joy, the joy of the Holy Spirit
Also striking is the two women’s kindness and generosity towards each other – they delighted in God’s work in each other’s life. Mary rushed to Elizabeth’s home, eager to share her good news, Elizabeth, for her part, was full of praise and thanksgiving for Mary, and imparted two blessings: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed the child you will bear!’ and ‘Bless is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!’
These two holy women point us to trust and really on the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. Through their witness they reveal that the Christian life is an adventure in the Spirit. They show us that as we receive blessings from God, we in turn bless others with the same grace. Elizabeth and Mary are models of discipleship, and we thank God for their stunning witness of the joy and happiness that is our birth right as men and women born of the Spirit.
Today’s Gospel contains the heart of John the Baptist’s preaching. His message of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Lord resonated with the crowds who flocked to see him. Just as it stirred the hearers to long for the coming Messiah, so it moves us to worship. Jesus said of John, ‘among those born of women there has risen no one greater’. The effect of John’s holiness on the crowds can be seen in the response even in hardened soldiers and cunning tax-collectors. We might think that John had cause to be humbly satisfied at the success of his mission – what more could be asked for than genuine repentance and newfound faith?
Water has a purifying role in the Old Testament. The law imposed many ritual washings before worship, and the Pharisees baptised Gentile converts to symbolise the cleansing of their hearts and their joining to the people of Israel. John baptised people in the Jordan to symbolise their repentance, but he knew that something more than a symbol was needed to rescue humankind – they needed to be immersed in the Spirit of God.
The Gospel of mercy invites us into a new time of grace. During Advent God’s word challenges us to repent and be renewed: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight…The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth’. As we respond with sincerity, we shall ‘put on the robe of righteousness from God’. 
Jesus is King and today we celebrate the feast-day of Christ the King.
God’s plan form the very beginning was that the Son would reign over us as our Lord and our King. Tradition informs us that Lucifer and his realm were the first to reject God’s plan and refused to bow down before Jesus. We, seduced and led astray by this very same Lucifer (more commonly called Satan or the devil), also rejected and rebelled against our good Creator. God’s plan was thwarted, but, since nothing can prevent God’s will unfolding, the very One who was to be King came instead as our Saviour. Scripture testifies that a time will come when all will bow before Christ the King and declare, ‘Long live Christ the King!’
The imagery of darkness, falling celestial bodies and the heavens shaking is disturbing to the modern mind – as it doubtless was in Jesus’ time, even if the language was more familiar then. Such events, we are told, will precede the glorious appearance of the Son of Man, who will come with his angelic cohort to the earth. When this will happen no one knows (except the Father) – but happen it will! There is a tendency to relegate this vital truth of our faith to the back of our minds. We may think of such language and sentiments as archaic, and find it hard to see it as an essential teaching of our faith. Our scientific world-view makes us uncomfortable with the talk of the end of the world or the consummation of human history.
We need to be wary of those who purport fantastic theories and predictions about the end of the world and return to Christ. However, we need to balance our caution with a desire to renew our faith in the blessed hope of the Church, the return of Jesus. The renewal of this hope sharpens our desire to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we pray in our hearts, ‘Come Lord Jesus’, a desire for the Second Coming is awoken within us. This living hope can strengthen and fortify us as we seek to live the power of the Spirit.
Bartimaeus is in such need. Unperturbed and undaunted by those who try to silence him, he shouts even louder. He is full of determination. Despite his blindness, he recognises clearly who Jesus is: ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ His boldness, courage and persistence are rewarded and he is called forward.
Selfish ambition, self-advancement and self-promotion are often hallmarks of clerical ambition. Pope Francis, for example has put a stop to the plethora of young clerics being awarded the title Monsignor. Under his pontificate a cleric cannot be made a Monsignor until he is the age of 65! One or two have slipped through the net, mind you, but that is understandable; the disease of clerical ambition isn’t easily eradicated from the Body of Christ.
Jesus uses this display or worldly ambition to teach about the new way in his kingdom. If we want to be great, we have to choose to be small. If we want to be first, we must choose to be last. If we was esteem and recognition, we must serve and not be served. Jesus attacks the wisdom of this world which looks to dominate, manipulate and control. To be meek and to serve is a sign not of weakness but of true strength and character. To adopt the disposition of a slave is not to be trampled on but to rise above selfish drives which compel us to serve ourselves and not others.
The Lord wants us to come to him for salvation to arrive at the point where we discover our weakness and frailty and then turn to him for grace, strength and life. It is essential that we discover this moment in our lives at least once or, as is more likely, again and again. Do we depend on ourselves or on God? The heart of ‘being saved’ is acknowledging our need and depending on God. We cannot taste the goodness of the Lord id we rely only on ourselves.
When we are following Jesus everything else in our lives loses importance: ‘I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’. The young man clung to the security of his possessions because he could put his trust in Jesus’ love for him. Only by experiencing Jesus’ love shall we be able to believe his promises and act upon them without counting the cost. Therefore we need to pray persistently to grow in our knowledge of his love for us. This is the key to following Jesus. Then not lacking one thing, we shall have treasure in heaven.