December 18, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Fourth Sunday of Advent
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
The First Sunday of Advent honored Jesus himself in the expectation of his final appearance in glory. The Second and Third Sundays of Advent honored John the Baptizer in his relationship to Jesus as his announcer and presenter. Today the liturgy honors Mary as “the mother of the Lord.” The scene from which catechetical instruction is drawn today is known as the Visitation. Mary visits her elderly, childless, but now pregnant cousin Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah. This episode is sequel to the two preceding annunciations of two births. It recalls the intervention of God in the history of salvation of the world. The first annunciation was to Zechariah during his service in the temple, the second to Mary at Nazareth. The messenger of both annunciations is Angel Gabriel.
In the second annunciation Mary learns that her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant. Thus Luke sets the stage for the Visitation. Mary leaves immediately to visit her elderly cousin. The two women can now share the joy and anxiety of carrying a child to term. Mary lives in Nazareth of Galilee, a northern province of Palestine. Elizabeth and Zechariah live in Judea in southern Palestine. As Mary enters the house of Zechariah, she greeted Elizabeth.” At Mary’s greeting the infant in Elizabeth’s womb jumps, “and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Exactly what Luke intends to teach by little jumping John leaping in his mother’s womb is not clear. Later commentators were of the opinion that this was the moment of John being cleansed of original sin. Luke knew nothing of such later terminology. A biblically oriented Christian thinks of King David “leaping and dancing before the Lord,” in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, 2 Samuel 6:16. Another possibility: “When the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings, you shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall,” Malachy 4:2. Not to forget, Luke himself is so impregnated with the Scriptures that he must express himself in biblical imagery and terminology. This much at least is certain — Luke intends to portray Mary as transmitting to Elizabeth the same Holy Spirit with which she herself was filled at the moment of her consent to be mother of the Son of God. Mary becomes a channel of the Holy Spirit.
Elizabeth, now filled with the Spirit of God, is enabled to speak a prophetic oracle, a divine revelation: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” In the Old Testament there were two women who saved God’s people from destruction, Judith and Jael. See Judith 13:18 and Judges 5:24. Both women are praised in these words, “Blessed are you among women.” Mary joins an elite group of salvation-bearing women. She joins in the salvation of Israel but in a way far surpassing the work of Judith and Jael. All Israel is blessed in Deut. 28:4, “Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb.” Mary joins all the women of Israel who hoped to be mother of the Messiah, an aspiration finally realized in her alone.
Divine revelation from the Spirit’s presence in Elizabeth continues, when Elizabeth says, “How does it happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” It was not the Catholic Church’s Council of Ephesus in 431 that originated the teaching of Mary as Mother of God. Instead it was the Gospel of Luke in the scene of the Visitation. To be noted also is the act of humility of Elizabeth who did not consider herself worthy of receiving into her home “the mother of my Lord.” It is therefore no wonder that her son, John the Baptizer, becomes the exemplar of supreme humility, when he proclaims in the gospel of the Second Sunday of Advent, “I am not worthy to loosen his sandalstrap.”
Micah is a prophet in Judea about 700 B.C. His oracles denounce corruption in government and religion. He looks for better times, and for a better ruler. This ruler, like King David (1000 B.C), was to come from Bethlehem. Micah was not talking about Jesus of Nazareth but about a replacement for a king whose policy he was denouncing — a policy which destroyed small farmers and small businessmen. This is why he emphasizes, “You, Bethlehem, 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,” that is, from David. Christian prophets, preachers and authors, under guidance of the Spirit, gave this ancient oracle new meaning, a Christian meaning. In their teaching, the ruler to come from Bethlehem, “whose origin is from ancient times,” is Jesus, the eternal Son of God.
The author emphasizes Jesus’ body,” A body you have prepared for me,” and Jesus’ will to do the work for which the Father sent him, “I come to do your will, O God.” The same can be said of us, conceived in the womb, and brought into this world for God’s purpose, because, “we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ . . .”