When, in our gospel today, we see Elizabeth, who is old and barren, meeting Mary, who is young and virgin, and both are pregnant, what we are witnessing is the dawn of SALVATION!! God is doing what no one else can do. He is taking that which is barren and hopelessly desolate, and that which is virgin and uncultivated, and making both fertile. Those of us who are older, and think we have lost the chance to do something useful with our lives, and those who are younger and untried, and wonder if they have anything worthwhile to contribute to the world, now find hope for the future, and the possibility of having fruitful lives.
The key to the realization of our hopes is faith, faith and obedience. What brings the hope for the virgin Mary that she, though young and humble, can indeed, beyond all likelihood, be about to bring forth from her womb, the Son of God, is because, as Elizabeth affirms, “she believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord”. And believing, she obeyed. As Mary says at her annunciation: “Behold the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to his word” (Luke 1:38). What brings hope to the barren Elizabeth that, though old and past child-bearing age, she can indeed, beyond all possibility, bring new life into the world, is again her faith and obedience. Her husband Zechariah doubted and disobeyed when the angel Gabriel told him his wife was going to bear a child and he must name him John, and, as a result, is struck dumb. He remains stuck in his rebellion against God, unable to perform his priestly duties, until he repents of his disbelief and disobedience and submits to the will of God for his new-born son’s life: “His name shall be John” he writes (Luke 1:63) , and immediately, he regains his speech, and is able to praise the Lord, and prophesy in his name.
The lesson is clear, brothers and sisters. So long as we remain closed to the Lord’s will for our lives, insistent on doing things our own way and not His, we are useless to God. And we are useless to others, and to ourselves. We are stuck, unable to progress in our relationship with God, unable to bear fruit for him, unable to achieve fulfilment of our human possibilities. Until we submit, believe, and obey. Obedience is a very interesting word. It comes from the Latin, “ob audire”, which means, literally “to be attentive to”. Obedience to God means that we are attentive to God and his word, we are listening intently to what he speaks to us in our hearts, and keen to carry it out in all its fullness. It has been well said that what the Lord wants from us, is not success, but faithfulness, in other words, obedience. In fact, being obedient to the Lord’s will does bring success, not necessarily in human terms, but certainly in terms of enabling God to achieve his purposes for us and for the world. It may be that, only in heaven, will we become aware that, having committed to doing what God wants from us, rather than going our own way, we have enabled God’s plans for our salvation, and the salvation of the world, to go forward. We will hear the words of our Master, saying to us, as the master in Jesus’ parable about the servants with the talents (Matthew 25: 23): “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been obedient in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master”. Won’t that be a wonderful thing, brothers and sisters, to know that we made the right decision to go with God’s word, God’s will, while on earth, rather than with our own, or others’ wishes?
Because that is what the whole of the Christmas story, and the Advent season, is all about, brothers and sisters: making the right choice before God, the right commitment of our lives. Will we go with the world’s definition of success, and sacrifice our chance of everlasting joy and peace? Or will we, instead, make a fundamental choice to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, as Jesus urges us, in Matthew 6:33? Will we say, in the words of our responsorial psalm today: “See, God, I have come to do your will”? As Jesus did, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and indeed throughout all his life on earth: “not what I want, but what you want” (Mark 14:36). And as Mary did, at her Annunciation, and also throughout her whole life: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1 :38).
The beauty and simplicity of such a surrender of our will to that of God, is that we do not need to understand everything that will flow from our commitment. We don’t need to know how my decision for God affects the whole moving forward of his plan of salvation for the world. We can leave all that to God. He sees the end from the beginning. We don’t need to. All we have to do is do the part we have been given to do, and trust that it fits into God’s plans and purposes for us and for the world, and we don’t have to know how it does. We just let go and let God. Maybe, as I have already said, we will only know when we are in heaven, how it all fits together, and why our faithfulness to doing our part helps hasten the coming of the Lord at the end of time. If we say “No” to God’s plan for our lives, then God has to seek someone else to carry it on, and that only leads to delay in bringing about the story of salvation for the world. What would have happened, for instance, if Mary had turned down God’s invitation to give birth to Jesus at her annunciation? Mary had been prepared from the very moment of her conception to become Mother of the Son of God. If she had said “NO” to God, then he would have had to find someone else and prepare that woman from the moment of her conception to become mother of the Savior. What if Jesus had refused his Father’s call to sacrifice his life for the salvation of the world, and the forgiveness of sins? Christ would not have died, nor been raised from the dead, there would be no resurrection from the dead for us, and, as St Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians: “our faith is futile, and we would still be in our sins, and be of all people the most to be pitied. And, furthermore, all of our loved ones who have died, would be doomed to hell” (cf 1 Corinthians 15: 17-19).
But in fact, the good news is that Christ and Mary did say their “Yes” to God, as did Joseph, and the wise men and the shepherds, and the priest Simeon and Anna, the prophetess. And salvation has dawned for all humanity in time and place. And they were simple, humble nobodies in the world’s eyes, but they did something great for God and for all the world. And you and I, brothers and sisters, simple and humble as we are, can also do something great for God as well, if we are willing to give our lives and times into God’s hands. St Louis Marie de Montfort once said “You will never do anything great for God, unless you are willing to risk for him”. Faith and obedience are spelt “RISK”.
Are you willing to risk for God, brothers and sisters, and do something great for God? Am I?