It should not be necessary for me, or for anyone else, to prove that we need a Savior, that we need Someone to fill the void that we feel inside and in Whom to anchor our hope because the sources of worrisome concerns seem to multiply with every passing day. 

Of all the ways available to Almighty God to save us, he chose a “very humble way:” in the fullness of time, he prepared for his Son a body just like the body that we all got from our parents. 

For this reason, when he came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. Hebrews 10:5 

Consequently, Christmas must be a powerful reminder that, in Christ Jesus, God has direct experience, knowledge and feeling of all the information that we gather through our own body. Furthermore, we must keep in mind that Jesus, our risen Lord will never shed his glorified body. 

Thus, this flow of feelings, sensations and information Jesus gets through his glorified body will never stop. 

At this time we should wonder why God chose to prepare a body for his Son Jesus.  

And the answer is that God had enough of all the sacrifices and offerings of the Old Testament.  They were too “impersonal.” 

In Jesus, God in human flesh, the Lord becomes thoroughly “personal” and saves us through a body like ours.  

In Jesus, God is so “personal” that he goes beyond saving us from ourselves, from our separation from him, from presumptuous pride, from our foolish deciding on our own what is right and what is wrong and from evil. 

In Jesus, God shows us the only way to true, lasting happiness by teaching firsthand how to love through our body and how to love through our heart, the most “personal” part of our body. 

Always true to his modus operandi, God chooses whomever and whatever is small, lowly and ordinary for two reasons: first, in his eyes, we are all incredibly precious, yet, at the same time, compared to his infinite majesty, we are so small, lowly and ordinary. Secondly, the astounding results must be attributed exclusively to his intervention. 

Thus, no sane and fair human being should dare to take any credit. Certainly not the woman in whose womb Jesus’ body was formed: And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Luke 1:46-49 

This is the reason why we now begin to grasp the mysterious significance of a phrase from today’s 2nd reading: By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:10  

At least every Sunday, we feel the need to gather to celebrate the way Jesus, God in human flesh, offered his body for us, for our salvation. 

At least every Sunday, we should remember that the offering of Jesus’ body consecrates, i.e. sets our bodies aside for loving, for caring, for serving one another: human flesh touching, hugging, embracing, healing, consoling and reassuring human flesh. 

This explains why this fourth Sunday of Advent, only a couple of days away from Christmas, re-proposes the gospel passage of Mary’s visitation to her kinwoman Elizabeth. 

Despite probable morning sickness, despite the long distance and the considerable inconvenience, Mary sets out in haste to touch with her consecrated flesh the flesh of Elizabeth. 

We cannot overlook the direct consecration of Mary’s body by the very flesh of Christ Jesus in her womb. 

The body of Mary is the instrument selected by God for her loving of Elizabeth and the way for joy to be shared and spread around. 

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Luke 1:44 

Contemplate the genius of Mother Church: right before Christmas we are given the secret to healing, to loving and to rejoicing. It is all in our flesh. 

The Bible tells us how evil, so raw and so close to all of us, stems mainly from sin; piles up over millennia from one generation to the next; stays with us for the longest time and spreads irrationally all around. 

But we should know very well that both Satan and his minions have infested our world, and yet, we also should know that our God has defeated evil in the blood of his Son Jesus. 

Hence, the Infant in the manger of Bethlehem teaches us to use our bodies to heal the wounds caused by the madness of evil. 

Therefore, we resolve to seize every opportunity offered us to use our bodies to touch, hug, embrace, heal, console, and reassure all human flesh that clamors for our care. 

We resolve to use our bodies for loving and, thus, for securing for ourselves and many others that endless joy that Jesus alone teaches us how and where to find.