FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT Year "B"

THE HOMILY: FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR "B"

The greatest things are accomplished in silence, not in the noise and bustle of the street or superficial display. It is in silence that the great decisions are taken; in silence that the heart moves to love.

God works in smallness and silence. The greatest event in human history, the Incarnation, was shrouded in the obscurity and anonymity of an almost unknown Jewish village, where the main actress is a simple, humble village maiden.  David’s descendent, a virgin  -  talk about surprises  -  a virgin is told she will bear a child who will establish the dynasty of David forever.  What on earth could this mean?  Mary will have to wait and see. Christian art throughout the centuries has tried to recapture the silence and simplicity of the Annunciation. The Italian painter, Fra Angelico, caught the mood perfectly in his famous work “Annunciation”, so that you can see on Mary’s face perplexity and acceptance.

What were our Blessed Mother Mary’s thoughts at the moment of decision?  She was a sliver of a teenager of between 14 and 15 years of age; her fiancé, Joseph, just going on 18 years.  Asking an unmarried girl of 15 to become the Mother of the Saviour and King.  Preposterous!  What Does God think ? (Thinks no end of himself. Well, that’s in character, since God has neither beginning nor end.) There must have a time of inner turmoil as Mary contemplated the future that was held out to her. It surely wasn’t easy. Her plans, her hopes, her dreams would have to change. There would have been fears and worries. Yet somehow, through God’s grace, she found it within her to say “YES” to God’s plan about her future and that of her child.  Her immediate response to God’s invitation to be the Mother of the Messiah, one of reverential fear and puzzlement, soon gives way to a total surrender in the obedience of faith.

During her pregnancy, Mary must have gone through all the normal feelings and emotions of a mother-to-be: hopes, fears, wonder at the mystery of life, questioning about how the new arrival would affect her relationship with her partner.

But it was not Mary but God himself who would accomplish this mission. Mary’s part was not to plan or devise clever strategies but, rather, to yield herself to God and submit to his plans. What is God calling you to do today? Mend a broken relationship? Deal with an incurable illness? Break an unhealthy habit? Are you willing to be “stretched” by God, to move beyond the realms of the possible and explore the impossible with him? This can be scary. Mary risked not just a wedding, but also public trial and punishment when she said “yes” to God. What is at stake for you?

Today’s Gospel is more centrally the narrative of the Incarnation. Mary’s role in the mystery of the Incarnation is both personal and also representative of our own response to God our Saviour. Mary said “yes” to God’s invitation. Her “yes” prefigures the millions of “yeses” that God waits for. God is clothed in the ordinariness and anonymity of the daily life of each one of us. In the ordinary something extraordinary is happening, something fresh and mysterious. “He comes, ever comes.” His deceptively simple coming and our apparently colourless responses are actually the texture of human life here and, still more, in the hereafter, because our eternity is born in time.

 As we recall Mary’s feelings at this time, we can see how she is central to our understanding of the Incarnation mystery.  And as we prepare with her for the coming of Christ, remembering how she got ready to welcome her Son, we can each of us in our own way open our hearts and minds to receive Jesus.

Today, this Gospel is fulfilled in our hearing.  How will the world know of the love and compassion and joy of God unless, in spite of our fears and doubts, we are willing to say, with similar faith and love, “let what you have said be done to me.”

PRAYER

Dear God, we thank you that you made yourself known to someone without power, wealth or status; and we praise you for the courage of Mary, this young woman from Galilee, whose “Yes” to the pain and endurance of bearing your Son let loose the unstoppable power of love which changed the world.