Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada) Luke 1:39-45 Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’ Gospel (USA) Luke 1:39-45 And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Mary set out in those days and traveled 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, “Most 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.” 21st December (i) After Mary responded to the message of the angel Gabriel with the words, ‘let what you have said be done to me’, Luke tells that Mary set out as quickly as she could to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Even though she had received wonderful news regarding herself, her first thoughts were not for herself but for her older cousin. Her faith showed itself in love, a journey of love to someone who was in greater need than herself. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul says, ‘the only thing that counts is faith working through love’. Mary is a perfect example of the kind of faith Paul refers to. Having given herself in love to Elizabeth by travelling to meet her, Mary immediately receives a blessing from Elizabeth. Elizabeth declares Mary blessed because of the child she is carrying and also because of her believing response to God’s word. It is often the way in our own lives that we are greatly blessed by those to whom we reach out in love. Quoting Paul again, this time his second letter to the Corinthians, ‘you will be enriched in every way for your great generosity’. Mary’s journey of love graced Elizabeth and Mary, in turn, was graced by Elizabeth. Both women were so open to the Lord that each of them brought the Lord to the other. Here we have an example of human encounter at its best. It is the kind of encounter that we are all called to make possible, especially at this time of the year. And/Or (ii) 21st December According to the gospel reading we have just heard, Mary set out on a journey to visit her older cousin Elizabeth to be with her in her pregnancy, and she stayed with Elizabeth three months. This was a visit that seemed to bring out the best in both women. Because of Mary’s visit, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and the child in her womb leapt for joy, and Mary herself was moved to pray the great prayer that we know as the Magnificat. Both women, the visitor and the one visited, were the better for Mary’s visit. The journey and the visit are very much part of our own celebration of Christmas. Some members of your own family may have already arrived to visit you for Christmas after travelling a long journey. Others may be setting out in the next few days and their visit is eagerly anticipated. Our airports, our ports, our bus stations, our train stations will be very busy places over the next few days. As Mary visited Elizabeth in the gospel reading and that visit was joyfully received by Elizabeth, so the act of visiting and the receiving of visits will be at the heart of our lives over the coming days. Mary’s generous visit in the gospel reading was matched by Elisabeth’s generous welcome, a welcome that recognized Mary’s worth and that celebrated her goodness. If Mary shows us how to visit, Elizabeth shows us how to receive a visit. We welcome our visitors by recognizing the good that is in them, by recognizing the ways the Lord is working in their lives. And/Or (iii) 21st December In this morning’s gospel reading, Elizabeth greets Mary as ‘the mother of my Lord’. It is a lovely title for Mary, one we do not hear very often. We can each say of Mary that she is ‘the mother of my Lord’. To speak of Mary as ‘the mother of my Lord’ is not far removed from referring to her as ‘the mother of God’. Both of thes title ‘God’ and ‘Lord’ equally apply to Jesus and express his divinity. Yet to speak of Jesus as ‘my Lord’ highlights the personal dimension of our relationship with Jesus. It echoes the way Thomas, the disciples, addressed the risen Jesus towards the end of John’s gospel as ‘my Lord and my God’. It was a very personal confession of Thomas after a period of great doubt. Jesus is Lord and God but for each one of us he is ‘my Lord and my God’. If we each address Jesus as ‘my Lord’ we are acknowledging our desire to allow Jesus to be Lord of my life, my unique and unrepeatable life. We venerate the child Jesus in the crib as someone who is now ‘my Lord’. Like Elizabeth, we honour Mary as the mother of my Lord. We honour her because it was through her that the Lord came to us. It is because of her that we can each come to know Jesus as ‘my Lord and my God’. And/Or (iv) 21st December This morning’s gospel reading has always made a deep impression on me. It is the meeting of two women, two great women of faith. It is also the meeting of two children, Jesus and John the Baptist who are being carried in the wombs of the two women. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting we are told that the child leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb. Even before he was born, John rejoiced at the coming of Jesus. Elizabeth in turn recognized the child that Mary was carrying by declaring, ‘blessed is the fruit of your womb’ and by addressing her as ‘mother of my Lord’. Both Elizabeth and her unborn son recognized that the visit of Mary was, at the same time, a visit from the Lord. The Lord was coming to them through Mary. The Lord came to all of us through Mary. Mary, in turn, exemplifies our own calling to bring the Lord to each other. We will be giving gifts to each other this Christmas, but the real gift we can give to each other is the gift of the Lord, the gift of his loving presence. And/Or (v) 21st December It is likely that we will all be visiting people over the coming days of Christmas and people will be visiting us. It is one of the good traditions of Christmas. We go out of our way to visit family members, friends, those who may be alone at this time of the year. We make a special effort to welcome those who visit us and to make them feel at home. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth sets the tone for all our visits. Mary brought the Lord to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth, in turn, recognized the coming of the Lord through Mary. The Lord was at the heart of their meeting. We too are called to bring the Lord to those we visit and to recognize the Lord in those who visit us. The Lord is to be at the heart of the visits we make to each other. At this Christmas time of the year, we celebrate the most fundamental visit of all, God’s visit to us in and through Mary’s child. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, declared in his great prayer, ‘God has visited his people’. We are called to make that great visitation of God to us in Jesus real and concrete in our visits to each other at this Christmas time. And/Or (vi) 21st December In this morning’s gospel reading we hear of the meeting between two women, Mary and Elizabeth. It is also the meeting between two infants, Jesus and John the Baptist, whom Mary and Elizabeth were carrying in their wombs. The child in Elizabeth’s womb is described as leaping for joy at the greeting of Mary, because in some mysterious way, John, although still unborn, sensed the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary. We are given a picture of John the Baptist as someone who is extremely sensitive to the presence of Jesus even as both John and Jesus were still in their mother’s wombs. John the Baptist has something to teach us about the art of being sensitive to the presence of the Lord. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus we can often fail to recognize the presence of the Lord even though he is close to us. We can be so absorbed in our own experience, as those two disciples were, that we fail to see the Lord, fail to notice his presence. As we become sensitive to the Lord’s presence to us, we can help others to notice what we have noticed. In the gospel reading, the reaction of Elizabeth’s child in her womb enabled Elizabeth to recognize Mary as ‘the mother of my Lord’. Through her unborn child, Elizabeth came to see that Mary’s visit was also the visit of the Lord. Advent and Christmas is a time when we help each other to become more aware of and alert to the presence of the Lord among us, especially in and through each other. Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland. Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie Please join us via our webcam. Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC. Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf. Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin21st December >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 1:39-45 for 21st December:‘Blessed is she who believed’.
21st December
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See Also
29th December >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 2:22-35 for the Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas: ‘The Holy Spirit rested on him’.18th December >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 1:18-24 for 18th December (Tuesday, Third Week of Advent): ‘You must name him Jesus’.