Micah
5:1-4; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45
In
haste. In haste. People are in haste at this time of the year as Dcn. Brian told
us last week. People are in haste to get to shopping malls, and many are worn
out by the holiday shopping and preparations. In this Gospel passage Mary was
in haste. It seems we all are in haste. But are we in haste for the same
reason?
Mary was in haste for the things of God, to
do what she heard from the angel. The Angel told her that she would be the
mother of God. She believed because she, like Joseph, had faith. Blessed indeed
who believes that God’s Word will be fulfilled. When Elizabeth says this to
Mary, we get the sense that maybe these two women had discussed before now that
Mary would have a special mission from God. Bishop Robert Barron tells us that
Mary is the warrior queen. Her mission is to bear the Son of God who will bring
grace and holiness to human history, crushing the head of serpent and reversing
the sin of Adam. Mary is in haste to usher in this history. Are we? Christmas
is upon us. It marks a whole new order of human history. Christ enters human
history to overturn evil and open to us the inner life of holiness, both now
and for all eternity.
Let us be in haste like Mary for the things
of God. Christ comes toward us at the end of this Advent season as the new Dawn
of human history. The hallmark of the Gospel of Luke is that grace breaks into
our lives daily, every day. God’s love is new every morning. In the midst of
our haste can we see, as these two holy women did, God’s activity? Christ dawns upon us in radiant glory, breaking
in and taking flesh in our own lives! Christmas comes close. “God who is with us” (altar)comes close. With
great expectation, we await His coming!