20 December 2026 · Latin Rite
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“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”” Luke 1:38
On the last Sunday of Advent the readings bring two houses face to face. King David, settled in his cedar palace, wants to build a house for the ark of God. Through Nathan, God turns the offer around: “Are you the one to build me a house to live in?… the LORD will make you a house.” God promises David a dynasty, an heir whose throne “shall be established forever”. David wanted to give God a house; God gives David a house, a family line, a future.
In Nazareth the angel Gabriel tells Mary that the promise to David is now fulfilled: her son “will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” The everlasting house God promised is not made of cedar but of flesh: the Son of God will dwell in the womb of a virgin. Mary herself becomes the house of God, the Ark of the New Covenant.
Mary's question, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”, is not doubt but a request for understanding. The answer is the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, the same verb used of the cloud over the tabernacle (Exodus 40:35). The Church professes that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary (CCC 484–486). And Mary gives her free consent: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” Paul calls this “the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed”, made known to all nations to bring about “the obedience of faith”.
Theme: “Let it be with me.”
God builds David a house; the promise is fulfilled in Mary; Mary's yes opens the door to Christmas.
“Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:16
“And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:31–33
Apply: Make room for God in one part of your day.
“Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” Genesis 18:14
“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”” Luke 1:34–35
Apply: Bring an “impossible” situation to God in prayer.
“Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”” 1 Samuel 3:10
“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.” Luke 1:38
Apply: Pray the Angelus three times a day.
God wants to make his home in us.
With Mary, let us say yes.
Take-home resolution: Set up the crib as a family before Christmas Eve.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this last Sunday before Christmas, the readings tell us about two houses.
King David lived in a palace of cedar. He looked at the ark of God in a tent and felt ashamed: “I live in luxury and God lives in a tent. Let me build God a house.” A good thought. But God answers through the prophet Nathan: “You will build me a house? No, I will build you a house.” God promises David a family line whose throne will last forever.
A thousand years later, in a small village called Nazareth, the angel Gabriel greets a young woman: “You will conceive and bear a son… The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” The promise to David comes true, not in a palace but in a girl's humble home.
Mary asks, “How can this be?” Not doubt, but faith seeking to understand. The angel answers: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Just as God's cloud rested on the tent in the desert, God now rests on Mary. She becomes the house of God, the true Ark of the Covenant.
And then her answer: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” With these words, the whole history of salvation turns. St Bernard imagined the whole world holding its breath, waiting for her yes.
Like David, we often want to do great things for God. But God wants first to do great things in us. This Christmas, he asks to make his home in our hearts. Let us make room, like Mary, and say: “Let it be with me according to your word.”
Children, King David wanted to build a big house for God. But God said: I will build a house for you!
Then God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus. Mary said yes to God.
Jesus wants to live in our hearts too. Can we say yes like Mary?
This week, help set up the crib at home, and leave the manger empty until Christmas night!
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
On the last Sunday of Advent the readings speak of a house. David, settled in his palace of cedar, wants to build a house for God, and God answers through Nathan with a promise: “the Lord will make you a house”, a royal line whose throne will last forever. In the Gospel that promise reaches a young woman in Nazareth: her son will receive “the throne of his ancestor David”, and God will come to dwell not in cedar but in her womb.
St Paul's short hymn of praise stands between them and names what is happening: a mystery kept secret for long ages is now disclosed. Psalm 89 sings the Lord's covenant with David. The key words of the day are house, promise and consent: God builds, God promises, and a human being says yes.
Setting.
David has become king of all Israel, has taken Jerusalem, and has brought the ark of God there with dancing (2 Samuel 5–6). The wandering years are over. It seems only right that God's ark should have a home at least as fine as the king's. This chapter, known as the oracle of Nathan, is one of the foundation texts of Israel's hope for a Messiah. The Psalms sing it (Psalm 89; 132), and the Chronicler retells it (1 Chronicles 17).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.”” (7:2)
A generous thought, and Nathan at first agrees. But David is thinking as kings do: a god whose temple I built is in some sense my god. The Lord will not be housed by anyone.
“Are you the one to build me a house to live in?” (7:5)
In the Hebrew the “you” stands out. Solomon's own prayer will say the same thing at the dedication: “Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you” (1 Kings 8:27).
“I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel” (7:8)
God reminds David of where he began. Everything is a gift. The promised son of David will also be a shepherd.
“Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.” (7:11)
The heart of the reading. Biblical faith runs in this direction: before we do anything for God, God does something for us. On Advent's last Sunday this is the whole message of Christmas.
“I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.” (7:14)
The king was called God's son in an adoptive sense (CCC 441). The Letter to the Hebrews applies this very line to Christ, in a far fuller sense (Hebrews 1:5).
“Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” (7:16)
“Made sure” (Hebrew ne’man) comes from the root of “amen”, to be firm, reliable. The promise is as sure as God himself.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine devotes part of Book XVII of the City of God to this promise and argues that it was not fulfilled in Solomon but in Christ (in substance). The Catechism notes that the temple David wished to build was the work of his son (CCC 2580), and that the kingdom promised to David would be the work of the Holy Spirit and would belong to the poor according to the Spirit (CCC 709). Gabriel's words in today's Gospel take up the promise phrase by phrase: great name, throne, house, son, forever.
Setting.
This is the closing doxology of Paul's greatest letter, a single long sentence of praise. It sums up the letter's themes: the gospel, the Scriptures, all the Gentiles, and the obedience of faith. The Church chose it for this Sunday because it speaks of a secret kept for ages and revealed now, just as Mary is about to hear.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages” (16:25)
A note on the text. Manuscripts place this doxology at different points in Romans, in some after 14:23 or 15:33, and a few omit it, so scholars debate its origin. It belongs to the canonical text of Scripture as the Church received it, and the Church proclaims it as the word of God.
“but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles” (16:26)
The prophets did not fall silent when Christ came. They became understandable. That is what today's readings are doing: 2 Samuel lights up in the Gospel, and the Gospel is explained by 2 Samuel.
“to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.” (16:27)
The whole of theology ends in praise. Paul has spent sixteen chapters explaining, and his last word is glory.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council quotes this phrase: “the obedience of faith” is to be given to God who reveals, by which we entrust our whole selves to God (Dei Verbum 5). The Catechism says that Mary “most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith” (CCC 148). Paul's general truth stands today beside its most perfect example.
Setting.
Yesterday's Gospel set the angel in the temple, with a priest, at the hour of incense. Today the same angel is sent to a village in Galilee which the Old Testament never mentions, to a girl with no office. Luke invites the comparison. “The sixth month” refers to Elizabeth's pregnancy (1:24, 36). Mary is “engaged” to Joseph: legally bound to him but not yet living with him.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”” (1:28)
God's promise to be with someone is the word given to those called to a great task, like Moses, Gideon or Jeremiah (Exodus 3:12; Judges 6:12; Jeremiah 1:8). Here there is more: the Lord will be with her in a way that has never been true of anyone.
“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” (1:32)
Read beside today's first reading: great name, son, throne. Each is taken from Nathan's oracle. All of Israel's waiting comes down to this one sentence, spoken quietly in a village.
“He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (1:33)
The Creed of the Church takes up these words: “and his kingdom will have no end”.
“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”” (1:34)
Literally, “since I do not know a man”, which is what the POC renders. See the question below.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” (1:35)
The Trinity is present in one verse: the Spirit, the Most High, and the Son. A new creation begins with the Spirit, whom the Fathers saw moving over the first one (Genesis 1:2), and no human father is involved. The “throne of David” has now become something no one could have imagined: David's heir is Son of God.
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” (1:37)
An echo of what was said to Sarah: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). In Greek rhēma means both “word” and “thing”: no word of God will fail. Then Mary replies in the same term: “according to your word”.
“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”” (1:38)
“Here am I” is the reply of Abraham, Moses, Samuel and Isaiah. Mary's reply is the turning point of history, given in the name of all. God does not force his way in; he asks.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that “full of grace” expresses Mary's being redeemed from the moment of her conception (CCC 490–492), and that by her consent she “becomes the mother of Jesus” (CCC 494). It quotes St Irenaeus: the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by Mary's obedience (CCC 494; Lumen Gentium 56). The Council says that the Fathers rightly see Mary not as a merely passive instrument but as cooperating by her faith and obedience (Lumen Gentium 56). St Augustine says that she conceived Christ in her heart by faith before she conceived him in her womb (in substance; see CCC 506). St Bernard, in a homily well known from the Office of Readings, pictures the whole world waiting for her reply (in substance). The Catechism adds that the angel's words give the Church her Hail Mary (CCC 2676): in Mary, “the daughter of Zion in person”, the ark of the covenant has found its fulfillment.
Did God's promise fail when David's kingdom ended in 587 BC?
That was the pain of Psalm 89, which sings the promise and then laments that the crown is in the dust (Psalm 89:38–39). For centuries there was no king. But the prophets kept the promise alive (Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5), and Gabriel announces its fulfillment. The promise did not fail. It was fulfilled in a way that goes beyond any earthly throne: Christ's kingdom “will have no end”.
Why did Mary ask how, if she was already engaged to Joseph?
An engaged young woman might simply expect a child within her marriage. St Augustine, and many after him, saw in her words a resolve to remain a virgin (in substance). Other Catholic scholars read the question as Luke's way of leading the story to the angel's great answer in v. 35. The Church has not defined how the question is to be explained. What is clear in the text is that Mary does not doubt, that she asks how, and that she gives her consent.
Why do Catholics say “full of grace” if the NRSV has “favored one”?
Both translate kecharitōmenē. “Favored one” is the plainer rendering; “full of grace” (gratia plena) is the older Latin one, and it brings out the perfect tense: a favour already given and still lasting. The Church's teaching on Mary's holiness does not rest on one word alone, but the greeting is one of its main scriptural roots (CCC 490–491).
In the Roman Rite this is the last Sunday of Advent, and the fourth candle of the wreath is lit in many parishes. The Mass today gathers up the whole season: the Entrance Antiphon is Rorate caeli (Isaiah 45:8), the prayer of the Collect is the one Catholics know from the end of the Angelus, “Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts”, and this evening's O Antiphon is O Clavis David, “O Key of David”, which fits a day given over to the promise made to David. A fitting family practice for today is to pray the Angelus together: the Gospel of the Mass is the prayer itself.