Adv4B23.   2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16.  God makes his home here on earth by dwelling in the midst of his own adopted People, rooted in Jesus’ ancestry from David.  The Lord spoke to David through the prophet Nathan: “I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.  I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.” The Lord has made us, his People, redeemed by the sacrificial blood of his Son made human through Mary, so that through his humanity he is to offer himself on the cross.

Luke 1:26-38.  God sent his messenger or angel Gabriel to Mary to announce to her: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus.” He is to be the “Son of the Most High” God conceived in her by “the power of the Most High” God.  Coming into our world, our divine God became human while still retaining his divinity, so to enable us to enter into his divine world while we still retain our humanity.  By Mary’s response to the announcement delivered to her by the angel: “Behold, I am the handmaid (servant) of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word,” she accepted God’s Will.  She is a model for us to respond positively to God’s will and so to give God access to sharing some of his divine life with us and enable us to be at home with him even while we are on earth.

Romans 16:25-27.  Alone without God we cannot resist the temptations of this world and the devil.  He strengthens us daily throughout the day.  God’s plan for our salvation has been made “known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith.”  In Christmas Jesus not only came into the world but still comes into our hearts.  To let him enter we must with Mary say ‘yes’ to his will.