Homily — 4^th Sunday in Advent, Year C

Fr. Timothy W. Castor

During this season of Advent, especially during the last few days before Christmas, our special companion is the Blessed Virgin Mary. We walk with her in faith as she approaches that day in Bethlehem when she will give birth to the Savior of the world. To walk with Mary is an excellent way to prepare for our celebration of Christmas. As we unite our hearts with hers, we find her to be both an example and a mother—an example who will guide us to receive Christ worthily just four days from now, and a mother who will pray for us that our faith will be as strong and steadfast as hers.

In today’s Gospel, we join our Blessed Mother immediately after she has received the message of the angel announcing that she will become the Mother of God. Having heard this word, she uttered her beautiful act of faith "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word." And at that moment, our faith teaches us, the infant Jesus was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ordinarily, a woman who has just learned that she is pregnant would not undertake a long journey far from home. But the angel had given Mary some wonderful news: Her kinswoman, Elizabeth, whom everyone thought to be barren, had also conceived in her old age and was now in her sixth month of pregnancy. Filled with the Holy Spirit, and carrying in her being God-made-flesh, Mary set out on a mission of mercy to her elderly cousin, Elizabeth. Already she is reaching out to someone in need, already she is serving the Lord by serving others—bringing the Lord to others and bringing others to the Lord.

It would not have been an easy journey, the 90 miles between Nazareth and the little town outside Jerusalem where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived. But Our Lady took no thought to herself and made the arduous trek, either by foot or on the back the donkey. She did so, the Scriptures tell us, in haste—the Greek here signifying earnestness, carefulness and diligence. As she traveled through the hills of Galilee, Samaria and Judea, she passed through many places made holy in the history of Israel’s salvation—places where her ancestors had fought battles to preserve their people’s freedom, high places where altars dedicated to pagan gods had been destroyed by faithful prophets of the one true God. There was much to meditate upon on this trip, newly aware as she was of her own role in this same history of salvation.

When Mary arrives at the home Zechariah and Elizabeth, their child, John, gives his first witness to the Lamb of God: he leaps in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice, testifying that the Lord is near. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth shouts out that beautiful phrase which has become enshrined in our prayer, the Hail Mary: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." And then, Elizabeth adds a remarkable phrase: "how does this happen to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" This is the first time in history that Mary is acknowledged as the Mother of God, because the use of the word "Lord" in this context could mean no one else but the God of Israel—the one whose name was held so sacred that it could not be pronounced aloud. But Elizabeth’s prophetic utterance does not end there. She goes on to proclaim the true nature of Mary’s blessedness. Amazingly, this not the fact that she is to bear the Son of God; rather, Mary is blessed because of her faith: "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

This might remind us of that incident recorded in the 11^th chapter of Luke, when Jesus is a grown man and has just taught his disciples about prayer and has cast out a demon from someone who was mute. A woman in the crowd, impressed with our Lord’s accomplishments, shouted out, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." Christ’s reply to this exclamation echoes the words of Elizabeth many years before: "Rather," he says, "blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." You see, the singular privilege of conceiving, carrying, and giving birth to the incarnate Son of God, was a grace which only one person in all of human history could receive. Certainly, this was a great blessing for Our Lady. But it’s hardly something which you and I—her children—can imitate. No. Her real blessedness—and the example which she has left for us—consists in her faith: the fact that she heard the word of the Lord, believed that his promise would be accomplished in her life, and put that word into action through her loving obedience.

As we walk with Mary toward Bethlehem this week, this is the lesson she teaches as, this is the example she has left for us, and this is the prayer she prays for us: that each one of us—her daughters and sons—will always be attentive to the word of God, that we will believe he keeps his promises, and that we will obediently act upon his word at every moment of our lives. The most beautiful thing about this is that, when we imitate Mary, we imitate her Divine Son. Remember today’s second reading: "when Christ came into the world, he said ... ‘behold I come to do your will, O God.’" The writer to the Hebrews explains this: "By this ‘will,’ we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." In other words, Jesus’ obedience to his Father was when he offered himself in sacrifice for the sins of the world. Your imitation of Jesus and Mary is precisely this: that you offer yourself as a living sacrifice in humble obedience to the word of God.

The beautiful icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which gives this cathedral its name, teaches these lessons as well. The painting depicts the child Jesus having a vision of his passion. He jumps into his mother’s arms for comfort (that’s why one of his sandals is falling off his foot). Mary holds him tenderly, but she does not look at him. Instead, she gazes into our eyes, and with her right hand (which is held by the Lord) she points toward her Divine Son. By directing us to Jesus, she is pointing the way to eternal life. In a visual way, this reflects the last words spoken by Mary which are recorded in the Scriptures. It was those five little words she uttered to the servants at the wedding in Cana: "Do whatever he tells you." As we look to her for guidance, this is the message she leaves with us as well, "Do whatever he tells you." Follow this message and you will find peace in this life and eternal happiness in the life to come.

© 2003, The Rev. Timothy W. Castor