4th Sunday of Advent, Year C (2024) – Homily
4th Sunday of Advent, Year C
Micah 5:1-4a
Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19 (4)
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45
December 22, 2024
Those who have heard me preach know that my typed homily is seldom exactly the same as I wrote it. Once is a while there is more differences. Today was one of those days. I can’t explain the difference but I think what I did actually preaching is better than the written text. So, here is a video of my homily excerpted from the video of the entire Mass on the parish YouTube channel.
It is almost time for Mary to give birth to Jesus but not yet! She remains pregnant with our Savior Jesus Christ.
What did Mary do when the angel Gabriel told her that she had been chosen to be the mother of our Lord?
Did she become prideful and expect special treatment?
Hardly!
When the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was to be the mother of our Lord, Gabriel also told her that her relative Elizabeth, who had been barren, was also pregnant.
Hearing this, “Mary set out and travelled” to see Elizabeth to share her joy. This is the story we hear today, the story of the Visitation, the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.
When Mary entered Elizabeth’s home, the first to react was John the Baptist. He leaped for joy! Amazing! Why? Because John was still in his mother Elizabeth’s womb. He couldn’t even see Mary, let alone Jesus inside Mary’s womb.
John couldn’t see our Lord with physical eyes at that moment. He saw Jesus in Mary’s womb in the same way his mother Elizabeth did, with the eyes of the Holy Spirit.
To see Jesus in that moment, John had to be already alive and already have a soul for the Holy Spirit to speak to. John had not yet been born but he was already very much alive!
Then, after John the Baptist leaped for joy, we hear Elizabeth’s response to Mary’s arrival with our Lord in her womb.
“Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.””
Mary has just conceived. She would not have looked pregnant yet, through the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth is very much aware of her Lord’s presence in Mary’s womb. There isn’t just a clump of cells growing in Mary’s womb. There is a child and it is Jesus our Lord!
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth knows of the message Mary received from the angel Gabriel. Elizabeth recognizes Mary’s blessedness for having trusted in the Lord’s Words.
Christmas is almost upon us. Maybe you feel like you have been waiting forever. Mary waited nine months since the angel Gabriel had announced that she was to be the mother of Jesus..
The Israelites had been waiting almost 1,000 years for the Messiah. As they waited, the Lord told them through the prophet Micah that the “one who is to be ruler in Israel,” the Messiah, was to be born in Bethlehem, a town too small to be considered significant.
Bethlehem may have been small but God made it significant. At times we might feel small but through God we are made special. Nobody is too small for God to notice.
Jesus comes to “shepherd his flock.” He does so with strength from God, his Father and our Father, who sent him. His name is majestic.
Jesus comes to save everyone! His message “shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.”
Peace!
Boy, do we need peace. Things are not good. Just nine days before Christmas, there was another school shooting. This time it was at a Christian school in Wisconsin.
Is there hope?
Of course there is!
Our Lord Jesus comes to save us. He comes to bring new life. He comes to put a face to God’s love. When we see his face and believe in him, we are saved.
Jesus is not just another prophet. He is not just a messiah in the human sense that King David was.
Jesus is the Son of God!
Jesus is the Son of God incarnate in the flesh, “a body prepared for” him. Why did God give a human body to Jesus? Jesus gives the answer, “As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to your will, O God.”
Jesus will give up his body as an act of love to save us from our sins!
There is new life, there is new hope for all who know Jesus as their savior and redeemer. I hope you come back for Christmas and see your hope Jesus laying in the manger.