“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
Mary believed the words of the angel. She didn’t demand proof, sign a contract to cover all reasonable contingencies in case the whole mother-of-the-Messiah thing didn’t work out. Her response to the word: “May it be it done to me according to your word.” In our faith, we have Jesus as the Word--the embodiment of God as human—Emmanuel, “God with us”.
We also have the word of holy scripture that is our link to the living tradition of our brothers and sisters in faith, used by the Church as a tool of furthering the inspiration of the original community of believers. Unlike Mary’s time, we are overwhelmed with words. It is estimated that nearly 300 million books will have been published this year alone! That doesn’t include the words of advertising spoken on television, splashed across computer screens, covering bus shelters, billboards, and car bumpers. It is hard to set your eyes on an object that doesn’t ask you to read something. We are awash in more words than at any other time in history, yet we seem to have less and less to say.
Cutting through this clutter is one righteous quest to enter the Christmas season that begins Saturday. In today’s gospel, John the Baptist as an infant still inside Elizabeth, responds to Elizabeth’s hearing of Mary’s greeting. This chain of events reveals something important about how we exist in relationship to God and to one another.
Since baptism, each of us has been comforted, protected, educated by, and imbued with the presence of the Holy Spirit residing within us. Like Mary and Elizabeth, pregnant with promise and God’s Spirit, our bond with God and one another is powerful. Our spiritual journey of Advent, distinct from Lent, is essentially communal—we prepare as a community, much the way both Elizabeth and Mary were in a strong bond of having received and believed God’s promise. Each gave birth to the fulfillment of that promise, but also had to be sustained by it because of the difficulty to remain faithful during the rough times ahead for each woman.
We receive the Word if we are open to its life within us as a community who listens, who is attentive to God's promises. Holy Scripture can only become Word through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and our willingness to, like Mary, have it transform our lives. With Mary, our faith-filled response is "May it be done to me according to your Word".
Since baptism, each of us has been comforted, protected, educated by, and imbued with the presence of the Holy Spirit residing within us. Like Mary and Elizabeth, pregnant with promise and God’s Spirit, our bond with God and one another is powerful. Our spiritual journey of Advent, distinct from Lent, is essentially communal—we prepare as a community, much the way both Elizabeth and Mary were in a strong bond of having received and believed God’s promise. Each gave birth to the fulfillment of that promise, but also had to be sustained by it because of the difficulty to remain faithful during the rough times ahead for each woman.
We receive the Word if we are open to its life within us as a community who listens, who is attentive to God's promises. Holy Scripture can only become Word through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and our willingness to, like Mary, have it transform our lives. With Mary, our faith-filled response is "May it be done to me according to your Word".
