Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year C
December 20, 2015
Homily:
- The visit of Mary to Elizabeth is a story of grace – God’s doing not our own.
- Both women are pregnant through grace.
- They are both women of great faith and trust: for Jesus is born for those who have faith in Him.
- In other words: Jesus is born for those who are open and can accept Him. He is born for those who can look beyond the dazzling shopping malls and trees.
- Our time finds this trust and faith hard to swallow.
- There are silly attempts to spark interest in Christmas through billboards that are frankly offensive.
- Like the NZ board with Mary and Joseph in Bed looking bemused: “I guess that God is a hard act to follow.”
- It points to the difficulty to generate a religious interest in Christmas.
- In 16thC England the feast of Christmas was banned; in 2015 it is all but obliterated by consumerism.
- Nevertheless, the gospel continues to announce, in Advent, that God has become one with us; incarnate of the Virgin Mary.
- Grace abounds in these stories, where God continues to reach out to humankind; in this case, with women of faith.
- And so it shall continue. For those with faith, Christmas is a bright moment. It raises our spirits and fills our hearts with joy and rejoicing.
- I read something from George Bremmmel recently, “No wonder it’s a lifelong struggle to try to get our hands on the meaning of God’s love for us; its depth, its fullness, its unconditional nature. Had God not revealed it in the birth of His Son, and in our hearts, we would never know and believe it.”
- Even when we grow cold to faith or sin, as the poem of Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven, reminds us, God follows us.
- The Angel must be listened to! If not we risk being lost in a world of endless “dead ends” and ultimate anxiety.
We already have too much violence, anxiety, depression and misbehavior. Listen to that Angel and believe. With Mary and Elizabeth we are in good company. The community of faith.