The following is a homily in the form of a conversation that will be presented at the masses on December 20, 2015 - the fourth Sunday of Advent. The inspiration for this homily was taken from the book - Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes by liberation theologian Robert McAfee Brown. I first gave this homily back in 2009 when I was at St Richard Catholic Church in Jackson serving as the associate pastor. I have updated it for my parish in Tupelo. After the reading of the Gospel for the day of the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, the Gospel will continue with the reading of the Magnificat. How radical are the words that Mary proclaims in the Magnificat? If we hear them the way Mary announced them to the world, should we be shaken up and shocked out of our complacency?
GOSPEL READING: Luke
1:39-55
PRIEST: During
those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of
Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted
Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped
in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried
out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and
blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to
me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the
moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped
for joy. Blessed are you
who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” And Mary said:
MARY: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the
Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For
he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages
call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who
fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the
arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from
their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled
with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has
helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to
his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
HOMILY:
Reader: We usually look at the
Gospel from our own perspective, of how it speaks to us in the reality of our
own lives. Today, on the fourth Sunday
of Advent, we hear about the visitation of Mary to her cousin of
Elizabeth. We hear Mary sing the Magnificat
in response to the greeting she receives from Elizabeth. Let’s look at Mary today from a different
perspective than our own. Let us look at Mary’s visitation to her cousin
Elizabeth from the perspective of a poor peasant farmer in Chile in a
conversation with his priest, and of how the Virgin Mary herself might respond
to them. Let us use our imagination to hear today’s Gospel from a perspective very
different from our own.
PRIEST: Today's Gospel brought to
mind a conversion I had with a friend, Joe in seminary. He was planning his first mass in the
Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky where he was going to ordained a priest - he
wanted to have the Magnificat sung at it.
But, when he came to the phrase, “The rich will be sent away empty,” he
decided he was going to change those words. Instead of the rich being sent away
empty, he wanted it to be the arrogant, or the proud or the haughty. You see, Joe didn’t want to offend his
sisters who would attending the mass.
They happen to be quite wealthy.
MARY: Why would someone want to change my words? Why can’t they just hear what I have to
say?
PEASANT: Hey, Father
Lincoln. Could I talk to you about
today’s Gospel reading? When I heard it
this weekend, it reminded me of 9/11.
PRIEST: Hi Miguel. Good to see you. Why would Mary’s Magnificat remind you of the
terrorist attacks on September 11 here in the United States?
PEASANT: No, not the attacks in
New York on 9/11. That's so far away
from here. I thought about what happened in my own country of Chile, on 9/11
back in 1973. Our President Salvador
Allende was killed in a military coup by General Agosto Pinochet on that day. President Allende was concerned about the
poor of our country, just like the Virgin Mary in the Magnificat. That is why I thought about that day.
MARY: Now this conversation is getting interesting. Let’s see how he connects
my visit with my cousin Elizabeth to his own life.
PRIEST: Let's look at the Magnificat, Miguel. How
does it help you better understand Mary and her situation?
MARY: I was in quite a predicament when those words
came out of my mouth: I was pregnant, alone, and very scared. I wonder if they
will understand the desperation I felt.
PEASANT: I look at the
Magnificat, and I think about the woman
who said those words: “The Lord has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness.” When I see the image of the Virgin Mary in
the Cathedral in our capital of Santiago, Chile, I see a beautiful, refined
woman with a crown, with gold rings and jewels on her fingers, dressed in a
beautiful blue dress embroidered in gold.
In reality, Mary was a lowly handmaid, a poor woman of Nazareth. She was engaged to a lowly carpenter.
MARY: Yes, I was a poor Jewish
girl wearing the same type of clothing all the young women in my village
wore. There were blisters on my hands
from the hard work I did all day long.
It was definitely not an easy life.
PRIEST: In the Magnificat, Mary
tells us what God is doing for her, what He is doing for Israel. He chose a poor, humble servant as the mother
of his Son.
PEASANT: Exactly, Father. Mary would have been like me and the poor of
my village who work our fingers to the bone to try to put food on the table for
our families.
MARY: What I was saying in the
Magnificat was that the lowly were being lifted up, that those on high were
being cast down. That's what God was
doing in his selection of the mother of his Son, in choosing me for this very special
task. It was all God's doing. It was all God's plan.
PRIEST: You know, Miguel, Mary
visited her cousin Elizabeth in obedience to the Angel's instructions. She did this out of love and charity. Mary
responded to Elizabeth with praise and love for God.
MARY: My soul magnifies the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.
PEASANT: I believe Mary praises God
because he has turned the world upside down.
You would have thought that our powerful God would have chosen a
princess to be the mother of his son. God's
message in choosing the Virgin Mary was that he pays special attention to
people like me – to the poor, the oppressed - the hard working people of the
world.
MARY: Yes, God raised me up, and
all generations now call me blessed. Who
would have imagined such a thing?
PEASANT: Father, Mary proclaims that God has put down
the mighty from their thrones. What does
that mean to me in language that I can understand? I am just a poor farmer. My family struggles a lot. The economic situation in the world and the
political turmoil in our country can make our situation so much worse - it is
way beyond our control.
PRIEST: Miguel, think of the
empires that existed in Jesus' day and how often they rose and fell – the
Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Romans. We've seen it in our own day too. Many colonial
empires have come and gone in the last few centuries. We were controlled by
Spain for a long time here in Chile – but that rule ended a long time ago. Empires come and go, but the poor, humble
people of the world will always be here.
MARY: Those worldly empires mean
nothing – God's kingdom is what really matters.
PEASANT: When I hear Mary
proclaiming that God has filled the hungry with good things, and that the rich
will be sent away empty, I see God empowering me. By the poor having more, the rich will have
less, because there is only so much to go around. But, I think God expects me to work hard and
to feel empowered as well. God took the
people of Israel to the promised land, but the people had responsibilities
too. They had to undertake that journey.
MARY: Yes, Miguel, you and the others have a hand
in proclaiming God's kingdom here on earth, just as I had my special role in
God's plan of salvation. God is calling us to work for peace and justice.
PRIEST: We all are called during this
Advent season to rejoice at the coming of our Lord. We are to joyfully give thanks for God’s
presence with us. Mary gives thanks in
the Magnificat. What God did for Mary
shows the great love he has for us all – the rich and the poor – everyone.
PEASANT: Yes, Father.
That is what I like about the joyful celebrations we have at our
parish. I give thanks to a God who liberates me,
who humbles the arrogant by showing them that they are not the ones in charge,
because it is really God who is in charge.
MARY: No one else in the world loves the Magnificat
as much the poor of Latin America. I sometimes hear them singing the Magnificat
as they leave mass, as they go out into the world. The Magnificat is not just the hymn of praise
that I sang while visiting my cousin Elizabeth – it is a hymn of praise for all
of us.
PRIEST: How would King Herod have
reacted if he had heard Mary singing the Magnificat?
MARY: He probably would have
laughed at me! He probably would have
thought that I was crazy!
PEASANT: Well, I am certainly not laughing, and the
Virgin Mary certainly isn’t crazy. The
message of the Magnificat gives me hope.
I may struggle to put food on my table, I may not have a lot of power, I
may not be rich or famous, but I have a God who loves me.
PRIEST: I am glad you have hope, Miguel. Let us have hope
together.
PEASANT: Mary may have been a
poor Jewish girl who was pregnant and scared, but she is the Mother of our Lord
and the Queen of Heaven. She is our
mother. That is why these words mean so
much to me.
MARY: It’s so complicated for
those in the modern world to understand who I was and who I am, to understand
what was going on in ancient Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth. I hope that my son’s disciples keep searching
for the truth. I hope they keep asking questions. I hope they never give up!
PRIEST: Miguel, thank you so much for sharing your
thoughts with me today. This
conversation has been a blessing for me.
God bless you.
PEASANT: Gracias, Padre. Adios.
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