REFLECTION
 
The angel Gabriel was not asking Mary for a small favor when he called on her to be the mother of the Messiah. Such a role was going to upend her life. To become pregnant outside of wedlock was, for a Jewish woman at the time, a shame and tragedy. God was calling Mary to put her engagement, reputation, future, and even life, on the line. She was called to sacrifice everything to bring about God’s kingdom with no assurances for her own well-being. Yet with hardly a second thought, she accepts.
 
Mary’s response to God’s call is a lesson for all of us. Working to bring about God’s plan requires commitment and sacrifice. Jesus himself reminds us of this: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24). When Jesus calls us to make radical sacrifices for him, to put ourselves behind others, and to put God before all, our response should be that of Mary: “May it be done to me according to your word.” Mary trusts God, and God provides; Mary is not disgraced, but even more importantly, through Mary, God’s great plan is made manifest.
 
Mary is one of the first templates for discipleship that we have in the Gospels. What we learn from her is that sacrifice is brave, trust in God is rewarded, and faith is beautiful. In our daily lives, as we are called to make various sacrifices to serve others, let us remember Mary’s bravery, faith, and joy in responding to God’s call.
 
Emma Marshall, Class of 2018, is a Theology major in the College.

​Dear Lord, in this season of light and love, help us remember to be brave and faithful like Mary. Give us the strength to respond daily to your call to serve you and one another through sacrifice and servant love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

REFLECTION
 
Like so many women in the Bible, Samson’s mother and Elizabeth amaze me with their grace in the face of the impossible. They allow God to work through them in the most drastic of ways, accepting terrifyingly great responsibility and becoming essential to the formation and continuation of our Christian story.
 
I’ve been studying abroad in Buenos Aires for months, and I still get nervous when my bus takes a different route to class.
 
Last summer, I emerged from a difficult semester and nursed my mind and spirit back to health at summer camp. The camp provides an immersive intentional faith community; there, I’ve always felt safe to push myself to answer God’s call. But as always, camp ends, and in July I was stepping out of this safe space and onto the plane to Buenos Aires. At camp, our mantra is “be open to outcomes,” which is hard enough when a trip to the pool is cancelled for rain. A semester abroad, though, is much more complex and - for someone who thrives on plans - scary.
 
I asked my father for advice on connecting the stories of two unexpectedly pregnant women to my own life as a student abroad, thinking on the theme of facing surprises with grace. As always, he summed up my thoughts far more eloquently than I could myself: “better to accept with joy and grace rather than run away in fear and ingratitude.”
 
I still don’t know what exactly where my journey will take me, but I’ve realized it starts with using my bus ride to explore, trying the food that is offered to me, and speaking in Spanish with the people around me. I´m still working on the grace part, but the joy is everywhere; so, therefore, is God.
Rosa Gibson, Class of 2018, is a Culture and Politics major in the School of Foreign Service
 
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REFLECTION
 
What is the deal with all these names? What could we possibly learn or remember from this very long list? Maybe if you’re like me, you have never heard of most of these names—let alone tried to pronounce them!
 
On first reading, some of the names make sense to me, while others don’t.   Mary, mother of Jesus, demonstrated mind-boggling faith at great cost to herself and her family to bring Jesus into the world; surely she belongs on such a list in the Bible. But Tamar? Her actions against God’s chosen people were less than moral.
 
When I accept and acknowledge that I am much more like the less-than-perfect people on the list than I am like Jesus, however, I start to understand it better. Jesus came to save the people like Tamar and me, and He did it because He loves each of us unconditionally. Mary and Bathsheba are on the same list because God loves them equally. Jesus came to our fallen world for the joy set before Him—to save us from our sinful nature and spend eternity with us.  He loves us that much. But why? While I may not understand why, I accept His merciful gift of salvation with gratitude and prayer that He will make me more like Him everyday.
 
I am further convinced that God loves each of us completely and without limit because of David’s prophecy in Psalm 72 and Jacob’s words to his sons in Genesis 49. God teaches us how to live through His word and the Holy Spirit. We can have faith in the prophecy He has inspired. God’s plan for the restoration of our fallen world is perfect and cannot be thwarted. This is the true gift of Christmas. Who can you share it with this season?
 
Stacy Daiger Cummings (C’92) is a volunteer for the Georgetown Scholarship Program.

REFLECTION
 
The “works that the Father gave” Jesus to accomplish, which demonstrate to the world his divinity, are the ultimate examples of letting actions speak louder than words. Such examples are the most powerful lessons I have learned from the Gospels.  As a visual learner, the most natural way for me to understand Jesus is to vividly imagine him healing the sick, embracing the marginalized, washing the feet of the disciples, and turning the other cheek to those who wished him harm.
 
Of course, Jesus is still performing such actions out of love for us today. We only have to visualize them in a slightly different way: as God’s love for us, manifested in the people and world around us. We see this love in Pope Francis washing the feet of refugees from different faith backgrounds, in a stranger performing a random act of kindness, and in the little reminders God sends to us that He has our back. Jesus served as the original role model, and now we must model this love for one another. Lately, I’ve been working on seeing God’s love in all things, a practice that calls attention to the ways our actions can best reflect God’s love.
 
As we eagerly await the coming of Jesus during this Advent season, let us keep close to our minds and hearts the images of Jesus’ actions. We need these signs of love to show us the way to Christ.
 
Christian Yon, Class of 2017, is a Biology major in the College.
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REFLECTION
 
Unconditional love is a very powerful thing.  I was raised with it.  My parents loved me for who I am, not who they might have envisioned me to be.  We are who we are; we should be loved for this, not cast aside or treated poorly.  We are the person that we have become because of the many aspects of life that took part in our yesterday, today and tomorrow—not to be condemned for what we are not, but to be embraced for what we are.  I believe in a God that loves us for our being and the gifts we bring to the communal table, not for what we don’t.  
 
Embrace what you do not have, open your capacity to give back what you can, and love for who you are and your capabilities.  Allow yourself to share of yourself and your capacity, from your heart, from your person, from your mind and from your soul.  You may feel like being different is wrong; but it is so right to be who you are, to be the gift you get to be to others and to receive the love of others, including the love of God.   
 
Being a husband and a father of four, there is so much I am not! They love me for what I am, without question and blindly; they don’t hold against me what I am not.  My unconditional love runneth over and as we approach Christmas, we will be celebrating the coming of our greatest gift: a man born as a gift to us who loves us unconditionally and was born for us and our lives.  Aren’t we lucky?  If we are open, all things are possible.
 
Charles DeSantis is Chief Benefits Officer and Associate Vice President for Benefits, Payroll and Wellness.

REFLECTION - Memorial of St. John of the Cross
 
Our reading from Isaiah, “Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,” is the antiphon of an ancient Advent Hymn “Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant justum,” literally ”Drop down dew you heavens from above, and let the clouds rain the just one.”  It is a hymn we used to sing for vespers every evening during Advent in the seminary, a hymn of longing for the Just One, who will deliver us from sin and from all that enslaves us. “Look, O Lord,” it sings, “at the affliction of your people and send him whom you promised to send.”

In our Gospel, John is filled with this longing and sends his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you he who is to come or have we to wait for someone else?”  Jesus answers: “Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor.”

For us too, Advent is a time of longing and Jesus’ answer tells us where we may find him who is to come. A Jesuit who works among the homeless in Dublin told us the story of a young man who came to him and said “I cannot find God.” He replied: “Come, join me among the poor and the homeless. I do not know if you will find God. But I am sure God will find you.”

Rev. Bienvenido F. Nebres, SJ, is Rector of the Jesuit Community and Professor of Mathematics at the Ateneo de Manila University and a member of the Georgetown University Board of Directors.
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For more information, please contact us at:
advent@georgetown.edu or missionandministry@georgetown.edu
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