What is your Visitation experience going to be this week?

Fourth Sunday of Advent  C  2021

During Advent we have been celebrating our emptiness.

This probably sounds a bit odd.  But think about it:  if we were completely filled up with the preoccupations of our life and if the inn or our heart was already filled with stuff, there would be no room left in the inn of our hearts for the birth of Jesus.

In the Advent season, we seek to be aware of a spaciousness emptiness in our heart that only God can fill. 

This time of the year, we can regret the increased hours of darkness in our day.  Our daylight hours are becoming less and less.  But maybe, just maybe, we can find some wisdom and grace in the darkness. We might hunker down more in the darkness, reflecting a bit more, and waiting for the light to return.  As symbolized by our Advent wreath, we thirst for the light of Christ.

In the first Scripture reading from the prophet Micah, God says as much about the insignificance, the darkness of the town of Bethlehem.  “You Bethlehem too small to be among the clans of Judah.”  You are empty of big ideas, power, royalty, and influence.  How could the Savior possibly come from the emptiness of this bit of a town?

Micah suggests that we look to the peripheries, to the margins of society to find God’s work in the world.  Micah is considered a minor prophet – not sure what that means but he is not as prominent as Isaiah or Jeremiah, the lead prophets of the OT.  Nonetheless, Micah, a man from the insignificant countryside, proclaimed that the Savior of the world, the Lord of the universe was to be born in the obscure town of Bethlehem.

It is the same way for us.  Our darkness and our emptiness are where Jesus is to be born this Christmas.  Such darkness includes whatever in us that is gloomy, angry, jealous, or just discouraged.  The friends who leave us behind and while we feel so alone:  that is where the child will be born.

 

 

 

 

We will discover God best in our lives when we focus on the simple, the ordinary moments of the day.  God will come again in the periphery of your life.  In the darkness and the emptiness of our lives may be where the Savior will be discovered in your life this Christmas day.

In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we have the very significant moment in salvation history as the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary proclaiming that she was chosen to be the mother of the Savior of the world.  We have Mary’s beautiful response: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy Word.”  There is no over-stating this moment in salvation history in preparing for the birth of Jesus.

Are you curious what Mary did after becoming first aware that she was to be the Mother of the Savior of the world?  The Gospel then tells us what happened next for Mary.  Our Gospel reading recalls Mary's actions after the announcement of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel.  

Mary hastens to her cousin’s house, a long trip, over dirt and sand and rocks, under the hot, hot sun.  She does not need to be coddled and queenly in order to bring forth our Savior.  She does not spend a second worrying that the way is too hard.  Her soul somehow knows about the light of Christ that will shine from within her.  Everything else is in second place.

Maybe emptiness can speak humbly from within you and me too.  Our emptiness points to the hunger that is within us for the birth of the Savior.

Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, her cousin, who is also with child. This is such a gentle scene and reflects the very best of humanity. One cousin going to help an older cousin as she prepares to give birth. Mary goes to visit her cousin to share her love and hospitality and friendship with each other.  Simply put, they speak the language of love to each other.

 

 

 

 

Mary is witnessing to us the way to prepare the inn of our hearts for the birth of Jesus.  It is when we serve and share friendship with others that we encounter Jesus Christ.  It is when we give ourselves in love that we find that we are loved.  It is in the simple and ordinary that we discover the presence of Christ.

May our interior Christmas decorations mean that we have time to share our love and friendship with one other.  May you prepare for the coming of Christ into the inn of your heart by your own Visitation experience – that is by your sharing of the gift of your friendship and love with another as Mary did in visiting her cousin Elizabeth.

In following the example of Mary, my prayerful question for you is what is your Visitation experience going to be like this week?  Who are you going to take the time to visit and share friendship with?

With Mary as our Advent guide, sharing the gift of friendship and love is the best way to prepare for the Christmas feast of love that God has shared with us.  May our Christmas preparation be marked by not what get but the ways we give.  And the very best gift we can give in our friendship and love.

If we are thinking that we just haven’t got the time to share friendship with another this week, know that the mother of Jesus is tugging at us in this Gospel passage reminding us that nothing is more important than the ways we serve and love and share with one another

In Luke's Gospel the Holy Spirit helps reveal Jesus' identity as God to those who believe. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and sings Mary's praise because she bears the Lord. We sing these words of praise to Mary in the Hail Mary:  Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Even John the Baptist, the unborn child in Elizabeth's womb, is said to recognize the presence of the Lord and leaps for joy.

 

 

 

 

Mary gives forth with the beautiful prayer of praise: “My Soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my Spirit rejoices in god my Savior.”

It is in the context of visitation and sharing our friendship that we best recognize the presence of the Savior in our midst.

May our Scripture reflection today invite us to develop a spacious emptiness in our hearts so there will be room for the birth of the Savior within us.   May we ask ourselves where is the Bethlehem crib in our lives -- that most unexpected place in our hearts where God chooses to dwell among us.  Finally may we like Mary have a Visitation experience this week in which we share our love and friendship with the Elizabeth of our life.

 

And may you be a blessing to others.