Gospel
Lk 1:39-45
Mary set out and travelled 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.”
Reflection
This Gospel story has many facets to it. I would like to concentrate on what is perhaps the most obvious. It is the story of two pregnant women. Mary and Elizabeth; two barren women who by all rights should not be pregnant, one because she was too old, the other because she was a virgin. It is a story of two barren women who became fruitful because of their faith.
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This gospel story is given to us by the church as we are deep into Advent which symbolizes for us the way to success in the preparation which we must undertake as we prepare for the second coming of Christ.
This second coming is not like the first. Christ will not come again as a baby. Christ will come as Lord to claim the universe for himself and to present this reclaimed and renewed universe to the Father. This reclaimed and renewed universe is the New Jerusalem proclaimed in the Book of the Apocalypse, it is the Kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace. It is the universe of total reconciliation, Reconciliation between God and Humans, between humans themselves, between humans and nature and within each human being.
As we prepare to remember and celebrate the first coming, we ANTICIPATE the second. coming and with that anticipation of the second coming, we recommit ourselves to preparing for the second coming by working to usher in the new era of reconciliation and total harmony so that the universe is prepared to be offered by Christ to the Father. In a very real sense Advent must be every day of our lives.
I know that there is a danger of falling into despair because of what I have said or simply of dismissing it as pie in the sky or the rantings of a deluded priest. The task of preparing this world so that it can be offered to the Father seems impossible. We live in a world characterized by strife and division. Swords are not being turned into ploughshares and training for war goes on. The USA has just committed 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Here at home, the murder figure continues to rise even though it is less than it was last year on this date. There is an increase in political turmoil. Married persons continue to seek divorces and declarations of nullity at an alarming rate. (We closed our tribunal today at 52 persons seeking declarations of nullity, one per week.) It is very easy to say, mission impossible and yet you and I are called to be agents of the renewal proclaimed in the Book of the Apocalypse. Our vocation is to be leaders in the task of preparing the world. We must not I suppose look at our entire countries, much less the entire universe. That will surely fill us with despair, but as baptized and confirmed Christians wherever we find ourselves we must strategize as the gospel of last week suggested and find ways to bring about the change for which we hope. I would suggest that the way forward is a united effort to ensure that our families are what they are meant to be, i.e. schools of harmonious living. If we really work with all of our families, extended and nuclear, single parent and two parent, it just may be that the cells which build up our nations will become more healthy and the civilization of love which we all seek will begin to make its presence felt in our lands.
Not one us I am certain will be around when Christ comes to present this world to the Father and so our preparation for our meeting with Christ is our being faithful to the vocation of being agents of the renewal proclaimed in the Book of the Apocalypse
The gospel story as I have said above is the story of two pregnant women. Mary and Elizabeth; two barren women who by all rights should not be pregnant, one because she was too old, the other because she was a virgin. It is a story of two barren women who became fruitful because of their faith.
To turn barrenness into fruitfulness is humanly speaking impossible but because of their faith in the all-powerful God who can change deserts into fruitful land, the barrenness of these two women became a fruitfulness which we today still enjoy.
It is our faith in the ability of this same God that will ensure the harmony for which we all yearn. May that faith which motivated the work of all the saints sustain us in our efforts to usher in the New Jerusalem.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God fill us with the faith of Mary and Elizabeth. Their faith ensured that the redeemer and his precursor would usher in the age of redemption for the entire universe. May that faith inspire us your chosen disciples in the world of today to further the work of redemption so that in the appointed time when Christ comes again he will offer this redeemed and renewed world to his Father. We ask this through the intercession of Mary and Elizabeth, John the Baptist and Jesus, your son. Amen
