In just three days we will celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. On this fourth and final Sunday of the Advent season, our Gospel tells the story of Gabriel's annunciation to Mary: she is to be the mother of her own, and the world's, Messiah. It is striking that Mary is troubled, fearful when she hears Gabriel's greeting. Sometimes we tend to forget that she, like us, lived by faith and trust. God's plan was not clear to her. But when Gabriel assured her that it was God's work to be accomplished in her heart and body, she said: "Behold the servant girl of the Lord. Be it done to me according to Your word".

Our Lady has often been called "the temple of the Holy Spirit", because of the event we commemorate today. The first reading makes clear that it is Yahweh who builds a temple for David - and not David for Yahweh. The immediate reference is to the Jerusalem temple which David's son, Solomon, was to construct. In a deeper sense, the "temple" is the Jewish nation, the people of God. And in the second reading Paul tells his beloved Philippi converts that they too are now God's temples.

Let us reflect today on this wondrous mystery: you and I are temples of the Holy Spirit, precisely because Mary said her trusting "Yes" to the Lord's word through Gabriel. How grateful we should be to her!