Bethlehem is mentioned in the First Reading as being "the least of the clans of Judah," (Mic 5:1) This is not an unusual pattern in God's relations with us.

Always, from and through the unimportant, come the significant, the carriers, those who treasure the sacred. From and through these small, come the great works, the wondrous and salvific. The Prophet Micah sings of little Bethlehem, "from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; ... ." The greatness of this "one Who is to come" is both His lineage and His labours. God seems to take the lowly, little and least to do the great works of salvation and always as a result of their trusting the One Who calls and not their own importance.

The Gospel for today is known as "The Visitation." We will hear the little-known Mary going with haste to visit her older cousin whom she knows to be pregnant herself. The angel leaves Mary, and Mary leaves quickly, as the first chalice carrying the message made flesh, though still quite small. It is the first Advent and Mary is announced as blest among women as she brings Jesus among His people. You Mary, too small to be among the clans of the great, from you shall all the promises made, now be kept. "The virgin is with child and shall bare a son, and she will call him Emmanuel."