Blessed Are You Among Women, And Blessed Is Your Fruit
1. God Visits His People
2. God’s Way of Coming
Introduction
1. God Visits His People
Our world is full of humble, ordinary people living in obscure hamlets, and yet some people like these have changed the course of the world. Within the history of the Church we are shown today the first person coming from such an ordinary milieu who by a simple phrase of her YES turned around the course of the world and the Church to be. It is Mary. Her YES to God, her “Here I am,” gave to her and to us Jesus, the Son of God. It made possible the “Here I am, I come to do your will,” of Jesus. Her YES and the YES of Jesus call us and the whole Church today to give our unconditional YES to God. Let us ask in this Eucharist that we may join Jesus and Mary in their YES. Then we can change the course of the world today.
2. God’s Way of Coming
To solve our human problems we have recourse to strong means, like authority, influence, money and power. God’s upsetting standards are quite different from ours. To save our world and us he joins people in their weakness and becomes human among us. The Savior is born not in the capital but in a sleepy rural town. He is born in poverty. He overthrows the power of evil with the apparent weakness of humility, obedience and service. A woman and a child are at the beginning of our salvation. Let us recognize God’s astonishing way of coming.
First Reading: A Humble Ruler Brings Peace
A shepherd king born in humility will bring peace and salvation.
1 Reading Micah 5:1-4a
Thus says the LORD:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
and the rest of his kindred shall return
to the children of Israel.
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God;
and they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.
Responsorial Psalm, PS 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Second Reading: I Am Coming to Obey Your Will
When Jesus comes, he gives himself totally to the Father. Can we say with him: Here I am to do your will?
2 Reading Hebrews 10:5-10
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.'”
First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in.”
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this “will,” we have been consecrated
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Alleluia Luke 1:38
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to you word.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Blessed Is She Who Believed
While she was bearing God’s son, Mary paid her cousin Elizabeth a visit of loving service.
Gospel Luke 1:39-45
Mary set out
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,
“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.”
Commentary
The long wait is almost over. The Liturgy is full of heart-warming phrases: “Know today that the Lord will come: in the morning you will see his glory” (Invitatory antiphon for the Office of Readings), “Lift up your heads for your redemption is at hand,” “Tomorrow your salvation will be with you,” “The time is now at hand for the Virgin Mary to give birth to her firstborn Son” (antiphons of Morning Prayer). When Mary learns that she is expecting a child, her first thought is to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth in “the hill country of Judea.” I have seen that hill country, and the mind boggles at the thought of a young pregnant girl setting out alone to cross it. But it was appropriate behavior for the mother of the one who was to spend his life seeking out “the weak, the sick, the wounded, the strayed and the lost” (see Ezk 34).
Blessing
We are now close to Christmas
and we are already full of joy.
Let it not be a superficial cheer
but a joy that comes from saying YES to God,
to his plans, to his love,
and of giving ourselves in love
to those around us.
May God give you this joy and bless you all:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go and recognize the Lord
and welcome him when we meet him.
R/ Thanks be to God.