Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 5:5-10; Luke 1:39-45
When God visits, there is salvation, there is Happiness
There was a family of five, mother, father, two sons and a daughter. This family does its best to remain a loving and caring family. Every Christmas, everybody returns home for a family celebration. As time went on, all three children went to college far away from home, but Christmas remains a home-coming event for them. One Christmas vacation, however, each of the children called their Dad to announce that they were not coming home for Christmas. You can imagine the sadness of their parents. So, a week before Christmas, their father called them in turns and announced to them all that he was divorcing their mother, after 40 years of marriage. The three children consulted with one another and decided to call their father to inform him that they were all coming home for Christmas, therefore, he should delay his decision on divorcing their mother up until they arrived at home. Having received received this phone call, their father turned to their mother and said to her: all our kids are coming home for Christmas; what more, they are paying their own way!
In this story, we see a creative father, who was missing his kids and he came up with a ruse to get everyone of them to come home for Christmas: the good news is, it worked! Today, we see a God, not by ruse, but by compassion, evokes his sovereignty in order to save and bring happiness to his sons and daughters. The name MICAH, from our first reading, like MICHAEL, means “who is like God/Yahweh.” This name evinces God’s desire to save through the deployment of his power.
By a divine decree, a nobody-town, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, gets catapulted into limelight and prominence – the Savior will come from her! When God is challenged, he shows himself as MICAH – who is like God – he becomes creative and does something new for the sake of his name and power; he saves! How does God achieve this? He does that through a visitation.
Today’s gospel offers us an idea of what happens when God visits – a virgin conceives, without the help of a man, the Virgin Mary; when God visits, a barren woman conceives a child of promise, Elizabeth. God’s visit fructifies an arid land, a sinful soul, a sorrowful people, a hopeless situation. God’s visit leaves behind visible and palpable signs of reminder of his passage and presence: on account of God’s visit, through Angel Gabriel, Jesus and John the Baptist were born; in God’s visit to Elizabeth through Mary, the child in Elizabeth’s womb left for joy.
If you permit, there is a play on words in today’s gospel: Zachariah (God remembers), Elizabeth (God’s oath or promise) and Mary (beloved). Put in a sentence, God remembers his promise/oath to his beloved. This statement brings to light God’s promise to raise a savior for his people from Bethlehem-Ephrathah, from lowliness. We can run a relay all through the Bible and we will see how every single visit of God leads to transformation and blessing for the lowly and the oppressed. This same God is doing the same thing even today, visiting the lowly and the oppressed right now. It suffices to see how many refugees find descent housing and a hope for a better future, despite the protests of some against Christian hospitality and love, in the name of prudence!
When the arc of God bends towards humanity, there is only one response possible – fidelity. With God, there is only the language of love, translated as covenant. Jesus Christ, in his humanity, according to our second reading, teaches us the essence of a divine romance – “‘As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God'” (Hebrews 10:7). If God visits and lifts up the lowly, his Son, Jesus Christ comes to show us, in practical terms, this love of God – he saves us from our sins through his death on the cross; what a price to pay for obedience and imitation of God!
Every human life is both an oath (Elizabeth) and a sacred story (Zachariah); above all, each one of us is beloved of God. Consequently, when the chips are down, and the odds are up, it is precisely then that God becomes creative; he remembers that each one of us is a child of promise, a product of an oath, emanating from himself as his creatures. As a result, God visits us as Micah – who is like God – so as to transform our unhappiness into a stream of joy and bliss.
Only few days separate us from Christmas. Only few days from God’s visit to you and to me – baby Jesus. The best question to ask now, just like every good parents-to-be, friends and family would do, is to ask: what day have we set apart for Mary’s and Joseph’s baby shower?
Assignment for the Week:
Could you go in search of pregnant neighbors and offer them a gift, in anticipation of the delivery of their baby?
An Exegetical Homily on Luke 1:39–45 for 4th Sunday of Advent Year C
Step II: What does the Text Say?
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, (Luke 1:39) where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. (Luke 1:40) When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41) and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. (Luke 1:42) And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? (Luke 1:43) For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1:44) And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (Luke 1:45)
Step II: What does the Text Mean?
Blessings not Gossips: Be filled with Jesus and your Visitation will be a Blessing Like Mary’s
Step III: Points for Homily