Father Rick Bolte's Homily

C: 4th SUNDAY OF ADVENT

2009-12-20

Today’s gospel reading is a simple story of Mary visiting Elizabeth. It’s one that many people (I think especially women) can relate to as we would want to be with and give support to any friend or relative who was pregnant. But there is a difference between wanting to and actually doing it. There are times when I’m a bit embarrassed or disappointed in myself when someone else gets up to respond to another’s needs before I do. I would like to think that I am a generous person and responsive to the needs of others. But often I miss opportunities because I am too busy and my mind is focused on what seems so important.

That’s where today’s story goes from simple to extraordinary. Mary has just found out she is pregnant. That alone would be enough to get any first time parents (and especially the mother-to-be) thinking about all the changes and challenges that lie ahead. Add to that the fact that Mary’s husband was not the father of the child to be born. Not only is this an issue for the two of them to work out but their whole village was made up of relatives who would be seriously disapproving. And finally this child to be born was the Son of God. Mary certainly had plenty to be concerned about and would be excused by anyone for not thinking about the needs of others. Yet Mary does think about Elizabeth. Nazareth is a little town that’s out of the way and she goes into the hill country (on foot) to see Elizabeth.

So why do I, and I imagine we, have a hard time being aware of the needs of those around us and responding as we want to? What’s on our mind that’s so important? We have a lot to get accomplished. We have to do all the things we’ve judged to be good. We’ve got to keep all kinds of things under control. We’re thinking ahead. We’re very concerned about how others will see us and judge us according to how good, successful, and under control we are. We don’t usually think of this as we hurry on about our everyday business. We’re so used to living for the future and according to the expectations of others that it seems normal and right. We’d be afraid to let go of living this way. Would we stop doing the things we have to do? Would we stop being the good person we try to be?

We’re trapped but don’t believe we are. We think we choose to do what we do. However if we try to live in the present simply responding to the good we can do at the moment, we find it extremely difficult. It’s almost impossible to do for any length of time. We are enslaved by expectations of others and of what we think it means to be good. That’s because we are still trying to be judged worthy. We doubt our own worthiness and want others to convince us that we are valuable.

Last week we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. As a church we recognize that there was something special about Mary from the beginning; something special about her relationship with God. Though we actually know little about her, Mary seems to have that ability to live in the present. She isn’t living up to others expectations and she’s doesn’t need to prove her own worthiness. In the Immaculate Conception we celebrate Mary’s freedom from original sin, that sin that describes our experience of being separate from God. We don’t know the depths of God’s love for us and try to earn it. Mary knows that she is loved by God as she is, she doesn’t have to work to deserve it. She is free from the sin that enslaves us.

But Good News! We don’t have to be enslaved. That relationship with God is available to us also! We do, however, have to choose freedom. We need to recognize our enslavement to trying to make ourselves good enough. We need to choose to actually spend quality time (not multi-tasking) alone with God to here God’s love in our hearts. We can challenge ourselves to let go of our ways of enslavement and sin and the hurried life. We can opt for the encounter of the greatest kind with our God; the encounter that welcomes the coming kingdom of true peace and joy!