Homily
for December 24, 2006
Liturgical Year B - Cycle II
4th Sunday of Advent
By Dcn. Ray Alcouffe Topic:
How Gentle is our God
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Gospel
Lk 1:39-45
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of
Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice
and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached
my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who
believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
“How does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to
me?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“How
does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?”
How gentle is our God! At the
moment in
history in which God is to enter creation in an intimate and physical
way to
complete his promises to us, God chooses not power and might and a
triumphal,
overwhelming entry, but one of meekness and vulnerability.
The
omnipotent, creator of the universe asks
permission of a young woman to enter the universe as a human child
growing in
that young woman’s womb. The events of this moment of history
are described to us in
the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke from the point of view of
Mary,
the mother of Jesus. This narrative has
a feminine and intimate touch that only Mary could give and none is
more so
than this Gospel passage of the fourth Sunday of Advent - the
visitation of Mary
to Elizabeth. Mary understands meekness and
vulnerability
and accepts that God is coming to us in this way. She also
understands that as she is doing in
the visitation, we too are to bring the Christ that is growing in us to
those
who enter our life. As God entrusts
himself to Mary so does God entrust himself to us.
To lay aside all the anxieties and
pressures we may feel as
we prepare for Christmas, and all the family and personal interactions
that
entails, and to allow our hearts to understand what is really
important, let us
enter into this Gospel scene. There are
many ways for us to enter into scripture in order to understand what
God is
communicating to us as we read, and one of the ways is to use our
imagination -
like entering into a play. Some people
from Creighton University
have done this for the first chapter of Luke and I’d like to share some
of
their insights. Let’s look at the scene of the
visitation from the point of
view of Zechariah who is the husband of Elizabeth. Zechariah and
Elizabeth are an elderly
couple who were righteous in the eyes of God and who observed all the
commandments of the law blamelessly. They
were childless because Elizabeth was barren and it was their
long-standing
prayer that they would have a child. Now
Zechariah was a priest who at times had duties in the temple where he
would
also offer this prayer of theirs. Now
that he was old, he gave that up as hopeless - his prayer was never
answered. Then it was!
We enter that moment with Zechariah as he is
sitting in his home on the occasion of Mary’s visit while thinking
about the
past, remarkable events.
"That
was an odd thing so many months ago when I entered the
sanctuary alone, that an angel, Gabriel, stood next to the altar.
I was so afraid and confused. ‘Your prayer has been
answered’, he said. 'Elizabeth would bear a child - a son'. In my
fear and confusion the
freedom of my
heart left me. I stammered out, why? How? We
are too old! I need a sign, prove this
to me. This can’t be real! The sign, of course, is my silence.
From that moment on, I
have been unable to speak. And now this visit from Mary, our dear young
cousin
from Nazareth who has been like our
daughter. She has traveled all the way from Galilee - 4
days journey - to visit us. When she and Elizabeth embraced this
afternoon in the doorway, Elizabeth felt the movement of our baby for
the
first time. Now we have finished our evening meal and I have brought
out a
blanket for them to share against the cool night. They have given
me a seat by the fireplace. I
cannot speak but love to listen to them share their lives. Then the
remarkable story begins to
come out. Mary tells of a visit by an angel - my Gabriel!
She speaks softly as she recounts the
visit for Elizabeth. She trusts Elizabethso much and tells her of her
fears and
the hesitation she had at the moment Gabriel presented her with the
great
question: would she bear the Messiah? The Messiah! The son of the
most high! When he asked, Mary fought with her fears
silently and then opened her heart to the Lord in prayer. Of
course, she would say yes. That’s the difference between us. Her
faith is
so great for one so young. When Gabriel
spoke to me, I argued and questioned because it made no sense. I
did not trust. But now, I hear about this great news in my
own home and now I believe! In my profound silence, the women have
forgotten I am in the
room. ‘Elizabeth ’, Mary says quietly, ‘I am with child already. And
the angel
told me of your news so I had to come directly.’ ‘Mary’, Elizabeth
whispers grabbing her hand. How have I
been blessed like this? To have the mother of the Messiah come to me?’
Then her
eyes light up and she holds Mary close saying, ‘The baby in my womb,
this great
gift from God is leaping for joy within me.’ The two women smile and
hold their
hands on her womb. My eyes fill up with tears at this
sacred moment and I
remember Gabriel’s words about my son: ‘He will be filled with the Holy
Spirit
even from his mother’s womb’. Prayers of gratitude fill my head as they
so
often do in these silent days, and then I go before these two women,
kneel
before Mary and begin my mute prayer of great thanks to the Lord.
Elizabeth, in her heaviness, leans close to me
joining me in prayer. Mary, her beauty
and simplicity shining in her, shakes her head humbly. This is
not about her. This is about the Lord. ‘My soul proclaims
the greatness of the Lord’,
she begins softly, ‘and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’ She
begins to smile and laugh as she fills
with glorious joy. ‘God has looked on me
in my lowliness’, she said touching her womb in amazement. ‘The mighty
one has
done great things for me and holy is his name!’
I think of all the years, the
generations, the centuries
that our people have waited for this. The Messiah! We had
pictured a king coming! Honors, power, might and glory!
Instead,
our savior comes through this young
and decidedly un-royal young woman. This simple, loving woman carries
our Emmanuel!
Our God with us, He is here!”
Like Zechariah,, we too need to take
the time to stop and
reflect on our God coming to us. On the gentleness of God not
overwhelming us
with his presence, but coming as vulnerable as a child in the womb, as
vulnerable as a lamb. God entrusted
himself to Mary, to Joseph. Now God entrusts himself to us; to nurture
his
growing presence within us and to share the love that is God with all
we meet
and to share that with all the joy that God gives us. Merry
Christmas!