Father Dilger

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT, CYCLE C

LUKE 1:39-45

This Sunday's gospel reading is the sequel to the Annunciation to Mary. Before giving consent to the message of the angel that God had chosen her to become the mother of "the Son of the Most High/9 the Angel Gabriel gave Mary a proof or sign of the validity of the angelic message. That sign: "Your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called sterile." Mary consents. The angel leaves, and the Gospel of the Visitation begins with these words, "In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city ofJudah...."

Luke has up to now described two annunciations and two conceptions of baby boys. What literary device will he use to bring the twin scenes into one grand climactic moment? The younger mother must visit the elder so that the two together may praise God's activity in their lives and in salvation history. Luke's intention is theological rather than biographical. Thus we need not dwell on the difficulties of a journey ofateenaged pregnant girl alone from Nazareth of Galilee in the north to the hills ofJudea in the south. Such details are not helpful in understanding Luke's instructive story. He intends to instruct his Christian community in the truths of our faith through the dialogue he constructs between Mary and Elizabeth. Had Luke intended to illustrate Mary's charity, he would hardly have described her as leaving before Elizabeth gave birth to a son.

Mary enters the home of Zechariah. Note the custom of Luke's time - home ownership attributed to the husband only. No offense intended to the wife. Mary herself is now filled with the Holy Spirit as we learn in the annunciation scene. She not only bears within her the Son, but also the Holy Spirit. Her voice becomes the channel to transfer the Holy Spirit from herself to Elizabeth. "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting..., she was filled with the Holy Spirit." What sign does Luke give for his declaration that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit? "The infant leaped in her womb." The precursor of Jesus meets his Lord and bears witness to him for the first time.

Elizabeth's gift of the Holy Spirit allows her to interpret the baby's jump, as she says, "At the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy." Luke calls upon his great knowledge of the Greek Old Testament to form the truths of revelation now spoken by the Spirit-filled Elizabeth. In the phrase, "Blessed are you among women," Luke reaches back into Judges 4, the story of the brave woman Jael, who saves the Israelite nation. Other Deborah sings in Judges 5:24, "Most blessed are you among women!" The same is said of the valiant Hebrew widow Judith who also saves Israel from destruction. Judith 13:18, "Blessed are you... among all women on earth." Thus Luke compares Mary to these two "saviors" of Israel.

"Blessed is the fruit of your womb," echoes the blessing pronounced upon all of Israel in Deuteronomy 28:4, if they will obey the voice of the Lord. Mary represents all of Israel as she bears in her womb the Messiah Israel awaits. The frequent disobedience of Israel is corrected by the obedience of Mary, who has said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Be it done to me according to your word!" Another revelation follows, when Elizabeth asks, "How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" The Greek noun which Luke uses for "Lord" is Kurios. The Greek Old Testament uses the same word to translate from Hebrew into Greek the Sacred Name of God in the Old Testament. Luke is therefore the first to proclaim a truth that was defined four centuries later in the Council ofEphesus, that Mary is rightly called "Mother of God."

Elizabeth pronounces a final blessing upon Mary, "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." This beatitude must be understood in conjunction with Luke 11:27-28. A woman from the crowd cries out to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that gave birth to you and the breasts that nursed you." But Jesus replies, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" Elizabeth and Jesus praise Mary's faith as more important than her biological motherhood of Jesus. She was the first to hear the proclamation of the Incarnation. When she replied, "Be it done to me according to your word," she heard the word of God and kept it, believed it, thus becoming Jesus' first disciple who believed in him.

MICAH5:l-4a

Micah ministered as prophet in Jerusalem in the late eighth century B.C. In this oracle he speaks of the greatness of the little town of Bethlehem, because "from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel."

HEBREWS 10:5>10

A major reason for the choice of this reading to accompany today's gospel is in the words "Behold, I come to do your will." The author refers to the consent of the Son of God to become incarnate in humanity. He notes that we have been consecrated by that will. By extension, the same may be said of her whose faith is praised into today's gospel.