The Third Sunday of Advent: Joy and Adoration
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior...For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. (Luke 1:46-47, 49-50, KJV)
The reading for the Third Sunday of Advent is the Virgin Mary's hymn of praise in the Gospel of Luke, known as the Magnificat from the opening words in Latin. It reminds us God entered human history not as a monarch assuming his rightful throne with pomp and circumstance but as a baby born to a peasant woman of simple faith in the humblest of circumstances. Our focus shifts from divine action in the world to God at work in the human heart. Indonesian Artist Martinus Sumbaji elaborates on the themes of the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary she had been chosen as mother of the Messiah, in this boldly-colored expressionistic drawing where the divine emissary kneels before the future mother of Christ, as the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. The Eucharistic chalice looks forward to Christ's sacrificial death to redeem the World. (John Kohan)