August 15, 2010
Revelation 11: 19; 12 1-6 + Psalm 45 + 1 Corinthians 15: 20-27 + Luke 1: 39-56
In the words of greeting Elizabeth speaks to Mary there are two expressions of praise:
one for the child she carries by God’s graciousness and the other for Mary because of her ability to believe that what God has spoken would be fulfilled.
Later, as an adult, Jesus will praise the same ability when a woman in some crowd calls out, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.” To which Jesus replies: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” The greatness of this woman is not simply found in the physical side of her motherhood. Her ability to hear the Word of God and obey it is greater, and in that, she becomes the perfect disciple and model for us all.
The combination of God’s action and human cooperation is what we must see and embrace with this great feast. God acts. The disciple hears and obeys. In Luke’s Gospel both Elizabeth and Jesus praise Mary
because she heard the word of God and kept it. It defines who Mary is, and what we must become. It is our vocation to be hearers and doers of the Word of God.
There is a problem here for us; a great challenge. Hearing the Word of God for Mary is portrayed as a face-to-face encounter. An angel spoke. For us it is not so easy. There are many voices clamoring for our hearing. Which one is the Word of God?
To discern that Word requires first of all a conviction that someone is speaking; and we are in the process of listening. We do not do much of that these days in the lives we lead. Listening is skill many do not practice. It even shows itself in here.
Rather than listen some want to text, some one to read. Reading and Listening are not the same. We are involved and engaged in a profound experience in our faith, because the divine and holy one is trying to communicate to us; and the speaking can be thought of as the divine desire to be one,
to turn all things into love, to right wrongs, establish justice, and to restore beauty to all creation. It is a call to love, to justice, to beauty.
As we seek to discern what God is saying, what is asking of us, we cannot be fighting for our way or imposing our will upon others
or upon situations that are complex and difficult. Our best hope is to pay attention to the woman we honor today; a woman who emerges as a person of openness and humility,
a person who questions with courage, consults, perseveres and looks for justice. The only way God’s plan becomes clear is by living it this way.
Today we Catholic followers of Christ affirm with this feast that the fullness of the human person is destined to live on in God.
That whatever it is that makes up a human person is not lost in death for those who hear the Word of God obey it, live it, and risk it. We are capable of living in communion with divine life. Like Mary, if we choose to listen and obey, we may have human origins, but we have a divine destiny.
Because God has taken the initiative with power and fidelity and mercy, love will triumph and justice will prevail. Not in some far off time or some eternal home;
but here when we seek the beauty of creation in every human life. Nothing is impossible with God.