
December 22, 2024 – Fourth Sunday of Advent: Fr. John Edmunds, ST (@10:02 in the video)
December 22, 2024
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT – C
Micah 5:1-4
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45
And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? These words of Elizabeth are ones which express a feeling that is all too common. We feel we’re not good enough, we don’t deserve it, we don’t measure up. Elizabeth is amazed that someone like her, someone whose defining characteristic is being ordinary, would be worthy of having God with her. This attitude of inadequacy is widespread because of the way human beings rub up against each other. In a recent movie called “Lady Bird” a mother and teen-age daughter, who calls herself the Lady Bird of the title, are constantly at odds with each other. The mother insists, “I want you to be the very best version of yourself that you can be.” To which Lady Bird answers, “What if this is the best version of me?” Parents want what is best for their children. They push them to do better in school, to take better care of their health, to hang around with better friends. What parents intend as a positive message of hope and encouragement is often experienced by the child “I’m a disappointment to mom.” Parental encouragement toward improvement is interpreted as: I’m not smart enough, I’m not pretty enough, I’m not popular enough. Lady Bird, like Elizabeth, like all of us, easily slips into the idea that the great and awesome God could not possibly be interested in the small and uninteresting me.
There is something in the human psyche which tends to make our default position: You’re no good. You’re not smart enough or skinny enough or rich enough or strong enough and this dynamic comes not only from family but society at large. Since we can’t measure up to the idealized images thrown at us by Madison Avenue we internalize a narrative of negativity. I am lacking, I am inadequate, I am a sorry excuse for a human being. But Church, this is all a lie. This is from the devil. That was the message that the devil gave to Adam and Eve (“You’re not good enough so you’d better eat this apple”). When, to familial and societal dynamics, you add in the trauma produced by racism or sexism or patriarchy or homophobia the sense of our unworthiness almost becomes accepted as normal. It is not normal. What the Bible teaches is that we, each one of us, is a child of God. What the Bible teaches is that we are blessed just in being who we are. What the Bible teaches is that we are precious.
Mary embodies how to reverse this process, how to recover our true value just in being ourselves as God made us. Elizabeth recognized how it worked in Mary: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Taking the word of the Lord to heart enabled Mary to overcome any feeling of diminishment or inadequacy. The word of the Lord was spoken to her by the angel: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” She heard the Lord was with her and she believed it. Mary shows us the path that we must follow. At our baptism God named us and claimed us. God’s word was and is: “you are my beloved child, I am well pleased with you.” Once we believe in that word, trust in that word, we no longer need to get lots of stuff in order to feel good about ourselves. We already are good. We no longer need to be better than others, to put others down in order to make ourselves feel important. We already are important in the eyes of God. We no longer need to insist that my way is the only way so get out of my way. We can trust in the way of God whatever it may be and feel confident that God makes a way out of no way.
Mary trusted when the angel assured her of her identity as blessed of God. But it was not an angel but another person who reminded her that she was blessed at the right time, when she needed to hear it most. My guess is that a newly pregnant, unmarried, teen-age girl who just completed a 90 mile four- or five-day trek was not feeling all that blessed. She was probably hot, sweaty, dirty, anxious and nauseous when she finally arrived at Elizabeth’s house. To hear herself called blessed was probably something of a surprise, a jolt. It re-enforced that the angelic message was meant for the nitty-gritty of her life. While we might not have the angel Gabriel to speak to us of our blessed nature we do have the Church, we do have each other to fill the angelic shoes. We are called to be Elizabeth to one another so we can break the cycle of self-doubt and fear that we all too readily fall into. Yes, things in our world, in our city, in our families, in our hearts can seem dire at times. But like Elizabeth we can speak the truth to one another of our identity as the beloved of God. Blessed are we who have found that in this community we have a people who are willing to walk with us as we live our longing for God. Blessed are we who have the willingness to care for our neighbors who are hurting or hungry or lost or lonely. Blessed are we who find that people are willing to forgive us our faults and failings as we extend as similar forgiveness to them. Blessed are we who cherish the fact that children and elders, male and female, families and singles, religious and lay, black and white, gay and straight, natives and immigrants, locals and visitors are joined at the hip in our journey of faith. Blessed are we because all of us together call Jesus our brother.