Mary and Elizabeth (Luke 1)

“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” From the Gospel according to Luke, the Gospel for today, chapter 1, verse 45.

In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

     Here we are on the last Sunday of the Advent season, on the brink of another Nativity. We realize that in the secular world, “the holiday season,” has been going full blast since Thanksgiving at least. There has been a lot of advertising online and on television and radio, there have been office parties, people are visiting, or are about to visit, relatives and friends in distant places, and so on and on. It seems as though the arrival of the actual holiday, Christmas Day, will be almost an anti-climax, a perhaps not-quite-relevant addition to a party season that has been going on for some time. And, of course, Christmas introduces that seven-day pause, when many employers shut down, and others slow down, almost as if they are breathlessly awaiting the New Year, an occasion for another big party, after which work resumes its normal pace, and “the holidays” are quickly forgotten and left behind.

      There are two themes in the secular holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve: food, and light. Food, in that we celebrate the fruits of the earth, and light, in that we do our best to keep our surroundings cheerfully lit as the darkness lengthens each day. Of course, these themes overlap with Christian themes and celebrations as well. But these two themes aren’t a complete summary of the real message of the season, and in fact, they distract from it.

     But the Christian holiday season, if I can call it that, is on a different schedule, and has at least one new theme. The Advent period is not a holiday season at all, but a period of preparation for the real holiday season, Nativity, and its continuation, Epiphany.  In Advent we liturgically and spiritually prepare for the coming of the Lord, and in Nativity and Epiphany we celebrate his arrival. And the theme, as it says in verse 45, is fulfillment. “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

     “What was spoken to her [that is, to Mary] by the Lord,” is stated earlier in chapter 1, before today’s reading. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” Mary, as we know, accepted this announcement, and awaited its fulfillment, which Elizabeth proclaims when the two women meet. The fulfillment, for each of them, is the approaching birth of their children. Neither of them expected children, and yet, they will have them. The Holy Spirit has taken charge of their lives, and given them roles which neither imagined, roles which will change their individual lives completely, and which, eventually, will change the history of the entire world.

     Elizabeth, remember, earlier in chapter 1, said of her conception, “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.” In other words, there is no suggestion at that moment, that she has any awareness of any greater meaning of the approaching birth, than the mere fact that she has been favored with a child. There is no hint, yet, of anything greater. Zechariah, we remember, had been rendered mute by the angel of the Lord, so it was unlikely that he was able to pass on the angel’s message about who the child was to be. Elizabeth, in other words, does not yet know of the prophetic vocation of her child. She has no concept of a future fulfillment beyond the birth itself.

     Mary, on the other hand, does have a concept of a future fulfillment, an extraordinary fulfillment, beyond the birth of her son. Mary has heard and accepted the message of the angel, “he will be great, he will be Son of the Most High, he will reign over the house of Jacob, he will have the throne of David,” and so on. Elizabeth, presumably, knows about this, likely from Mary herself, for Elizabeth says, “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” I hear in this a slight hint of regret, of wistfulness, in Elizabeth’s voice, that suggests to me that perhaps Elizabeth thinks that there is more to the approaching birth of her son, but she does not know what.

     And how does Mary reply? With that great song of praise which we call the Magnificat. In it, Mary thanks God not only for present fulfillment, if I can put it that way, in the approaching birth of her son, but also for the fulfillment of past promises to Abraham and his descendants forever, and for future fulfillment, of things which haven’t happened yet, bringing down the powerful from their thrones, lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry, sending away the rich. The world and the Church have got a short way towards this  future fulfillment, even though there is still much to be done. But one future fulfillment has come to pass. Mary says, “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.” And all generations since the Annunciation have done so, honoring Mary for her great work, in bringing the Incarnate Lord into the world.

     Who are we, and where are we, in this story? Are we like Elizabeth, certainly pleased in her natural human way that she would have a child, but with no greater awareness of the true nature and meaning of that fulfillment, than that? Do we find ourselves, like Elizabeth, in a situation where we are surrounded by people who don’t allow us to hear the promises, because those people don’t really believe them? Do we perhaps have a sense, like Elizabeth does, that something greater is happening, but we aren’t sure what it is? The situation of Elizabeth, it seems to me, is a rather contemporary one. I suspect that most people, even a lot of Christian people, are rather like Elizabeth, unknowing and unsure, but still desiring to know the will of God and to recognize His work in others.

     Or are we more like Mary, confident in the promises of God, and able and willing to say so, in anything like the grand, exultant words of the Magnificat? Mary is allowing God to fulfill in her his will for the whole world. Her words are full of her awareness of this great work. Perhaps such an awareness seems to great for us, too lofty, or, too deep, way beyond our ordinary capabilities. Can we, like Mary, find that point of contact between our ordinary selves and the greatness of God? We know that we can do this, because, as Mary says, God “has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” We usually take this to mean that it is only Mary’s lowliness which God has looked on. But, in fact, it is also the lowliness, the ordinariness, of every single human being, on which God looks with favor. God is coming upon every single one of us with his Holy Spirit, with his power. He does this endlessly, all the time. God is bringing himself to birth in each one of us. Our task is to accept that, to believe that, to allow that to happen. What is being born in us is a glimpse of our true nature, and our vocation, our task which God is giving us to do in the world.

    Mary’s visit to Elizabeth is another step in the revelation to Elizabeth, of her vocation. Mary has embraced Elizabeth’s lowliness, her ordinary understanding of the approaching birth of her son, and enabled Elizabeth to have a glimpse of the greater meaning of what they both are going through. Elizabeth is enabled to recognize the Mother of the Lord, another step in learning what her son’s vocation is to be.

     Do we, like Mary, in our relations with others, enable others to have a glimpse of what their true vocation is? What their real nature is? For, in the end, that is what we are all doing, all the time. We are all bringing God to birth in ourselves and others, if we allow ourselves to do that. This gives our ordinariness, our lowliness, an eternal meaning.

     So, in our celebrations of food, of light, and of fulfillment, all those themes of this special time of the year, we are blessed, as Mary and Elizabeth are, “who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken…by the Lord.”

In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.