Liturgists say that today — the 4th Sunday of Advent — is the Sunday of Love.

Saint Francis advises that love lightens all difficulties and sweetens all bitterness. Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel of John: “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

Love is not dwelling on what we do not understand, but being faithful to the light we are given. Love is not an act; it is a process. It is committing all we know of ourselves to all we know of God in Jesus Christ. Both will grow. I remember the girl whom I wanted to be my partner in life telling me to trust the process.

Speaking of love, I do not know any human being who stands out as the greatest example of love aside from Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mary stands out as the greatest example of love, for she not only prepared the way of the Lord, she provided Him room!

Have you ever wondered why, every year during this Sunday and all throughout the Simbang Gabi we are listening to the same story. Who doesn’t know how it is going to come out? The plot doesn’t change.

Every shepherd is in place; the star is shining on cue. No matter how predictable, we keep listening. We lean forward with anticipation, for somehow, despite the familiar details, we believe that this story is about us. What if the angel’s message to Mary (“the Lord is with you”) is God’s message to us?

According to Luke, this is what Gabriel told Mary, “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.”

These are the elements of the story that we know.

But somewhere, along the way, we have to think about what we don’t know. And what we don’t know is what happened after the angel left the room.

Was that the way it was with Mary? “Why didn’t I ask Gabriel this while I had the chance?”

“Will Joseph stick around? Will my parents still love me? Will my friends stand by me or will I get dragged into town and be stoned…? Will the pregnancy go all right? Will the labor be hard? Will there be someone there to help me when my time comes? Will I know what to do? You say the child will be king of Israel, but what about me? Will I survive his birth? What about me?”

It is hard for most of us today, who take our possible salvation in Christ for granted, to appreciate the importance of this revelation that defined where the Jewish religion evolved into the Christian religion.

Yet, it is the revelation of this most important mystery of God that we celebrate at Christmas: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

If we want to find ourselves in this ancient but life-giving tale, we need to look at the one who received this word of assurance: Mary — who has been called, “the figure that is raised above all the figures of Advent.” In John, we may see our need to prepare the way of the Lord, but in Mary we see the even greater need to prepare Him room. In her, we see the response of love.

So, we have heard this story again, this time through the eyes of a woman of faith and unconditional love. Still there are questions, intellectual doubts that block our belief. Can we be like Mary who asked questions but did not wait until every doubt was answered before she risked herself by believing?

Let us have that faith, faith in God and faith in Jesus.