December 22, 2024: Fourth Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
[And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”]
The following is an excerpt from my presentation on Mary of Nazareth given at King’s House Retreat Center in 2005.
“Much is made of Mary’s outward cooperation with the God who asked her to be the mother of Jesus; very little thought is given to the inner strength and stalwartness it took for her to be able to cooperate with God’s plan. This little 15-year-old Hebrew girl was made of strong stuff – how else could she have traveled, newly pregnant, to visit her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country? I looked at a map of ancient Israel and calculated that the distance between the town of Nazareth where Mary was from to the locale where Elizabeth was reputed to have lived is roughly 80 miles! There were no cars in those days! Now I can’t imagine walking on foot or even riding a donkey for 80 miles in the first trimester of any of my pregnancies – I was sick as a dog and tired all the time! All I wanted to do was eat crackers and go to sleep. Yet we are told that Mary “went with haste” to visit her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country. Inner strength and stalwartness, that’s what that girl had.
Mary’s beautiful song of praise in Luke 1: 46-55, the Magnificat, is an affirmation that because she was called by God to a new undertaking, her very identity changed – she became a different person. Her yes to God’s request made her an active participant in God’s plans for humanity, and opened up for her a whole world of grace she had not experienced before. And she exemplified this huge change in her personhood by traveling to go see her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country – her physical change of locale is symbolic of the interior change that had taken place within her.
Just as Mary was called forth to new life in her yes to God’s request to be the mother of Jesus, so are we called to new life with ways God asks us to stretch and grow, and we open ourselves to new opportunities for grace. Like when we took our first jobs, or when we got married or had children. Do we think of ourselves, in the various ways we respond to God’s initiative in our lives, as cooperating with the Spirit as Mary did? “Mary is me, and Mary is you. I am Mary, and you are Mary. Whenever you feel like you’re being summoned from some deep and holy place within to journey to some deep and holy place within, know that it’s God inviting you to an altar where you might encounter God anew and yourself anew. That’s spiritual pregnancy,” Renita J. Weems explains in Showing Mary.
Mary’s prayer of thanksgiving to God, the Magnificat, is also her way of affirming God’s plans to use her as part of God’s great mission. And what is the reason Mary gives for why God chose her to do God’s work? Why does Mary say that her soul magnifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God? Is it because of her great power, or her intelligence, or her extraordinary abilities? No. It is because “God has looked with favor on the lowliness of [God’s] servant”. God’s choice to ask Mary to be the mother of Jesus is another example that the people God calls to do God’s work are not the powerful among us, are not those whom the world calls great. God calls the meek, the lowly, the ones who are humble of heart to fulfill God’s mission here on earth. Over and over again, we see this reflected in the Scriptures – God always chooses the least likely human being to fulfill God’s plans! So the next time you’re asked to do something that maybe you think you’re not qualified to do, think about this tendency God has! And can we think of ourselves, in the times we are able to say “yes” to God, as participating in God’s plans for humanity like Mary did, no matter how small and insignificant our actions seem to be? “
Loved this Sally!!! Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!
This is especially meaningful to me at this time. Thank you for several new insights. Blessed Christmas.
This is especialy meaningful to me at this time. Thank you for the new insights.
A Blessed Christmas.
I’m so glad you found it meaningful, Lexine! A blessed Christmas to you, too!
Thank you, Betty! A blessed Christmas and New Year to you, too!