Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Advent

Dec. 23, 2018

Luke 1: 39-45                                                           
Nativity, Washington, D.C.                                                           

“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…” (Luke 1: 41-42).

Section of a memorial by the Master of Spes Nostra, ca. 1500 

(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Our attention during the last several days of Advent has been on John the Baptist, the forerunner, the announcer of the imminent coming of the Savior.  Today the other great figure of Advent comes into view, the Virgin Mary.  But John remains an important character in the story.

If you pray the Rosary, you’re very familiar with the scene in the Gospel.  Mary, St. Luke tells us, went in haste to the home of her elder kinswoman Elizabeth (1:39).  Her haste betokens an eagerness to witness the wondrous deed that the angel Gabriel has made known to her, Elizabeth’s conception of a son some 6 months earlier (1:36-37); and an eagerness, we believe, to assist her relative.

We may also see in Mary’s haste—her promptness, not rashness (as in “haste makes waste”)—an indication of her character, one of those attitudes that made her so favorable in God’s eyes (1:28,30), viz., a readiness to act on whatever God reveals to her. 

So we have right there, my dear sisters and brothers, some examples in Mary’s attitude and behavior for us to imitate:  readiness and promptness to act when God speaks to us; readiness and promptness to help our neighbor and especially our own kin; readiness and promptness to look for signs of God at work in our world.  Thus we, also, responding to the promptings of God’s grace in us may continue to find favor with him, be filled with his grace, like Mary.

What happens when Mary arrives at the home of Elizabeth and Zechariah?  Elizabeth is inspired by the Holy Spirit to recognize the presence of her Lord (1:42), not merely of her younger relative, who probably wasn’t even showing yet.  Elizabeth has already been specially favored by God by being able to conceive her son at her advanced age and apparent infertility (1:36)—whatever that age may have been; St. Luke tells us only that she was “advanced in years” (1:7).

Now Elizabeth is given another grace, that of faith:  she sees not with her bodily eyes, which probably can’t detect Mary’s pregnancy, but with spiritual insight that Mary’s pregnant; inspired by the Holy Spirit (1:41), she sees that Mary’s not pregnant with an ordinary child but with her Lord.  She’s been given the gift of faith to recognize Jesus.

Dear friends, if we recognize Jesus, i.e., know who he truly is; if we take him as our Lord—then we have received a gift from God.  Faith is a gift.  It’s not given to everyone.  Some of the smartest and most talented people in the world haven’t met Jesus, haven’t believed in Jesus, might even have positively rejected him.  We thank God for this gift he has given us thru the same Holy Spirit who inspired Elizabeth so many centuries ago.

The next thing we notice in the story is that Elizabeth’s child, too—unborn John—recognizes the presence of Jesus:  “At the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy” (1:44).  The presence of our Lord Jesus among us is cause for joy, my brothers and sisters!  We know this instinctively as we prepare for and celebrate Christmas.  The entire atmosphere is different, and it’s not just because of commercialism.  There’s joy around us.  There’s hope around us even when we see the sorry world with its problems.  This is the world that the Son of God has entered, entered to redeem.  So John, representing all of us, leaps for joy.  And we, knowing that the risen, alive Lord Jesus Christ remains with us, are a joyful people.  We, confident that our risen, alive Lord Jesus Christ forgives our sins and calls us to eternal life with him, live joyfully and share our joy with the world—not only at Christmas but all year long.  “Joy to the world! the Lord is come.  Joy to the world! the Savior reigns.”

You may ask how our risen Lord Jesus is present to us, or you may already know very well.  He’s with us in the Holy Eucharist.  He’s with us in our fellow Christians, in this sacred gathering.  He’s with us in his Word, the sacred Scriptures—wherein he wishes to speak to us daily for our encouragement, our admonition, or our union with him in praising his Father.  How much our Lord Jesus loves us, to be so present, in addition to his forgiving our sins!  How could we not leap for joy—at least spiritually—and share our joy with our families, friends, and others?