When children are born into the life of a couple, life is utterly changed and transformed. It makes no difference whether it is the first pregnancy or a later pregnancy. Life takes on a new normal, a new way of being. The same happens when we give full assent to God to enter into our lives.
In today’s Gospel, we see two women, one about the age of 14 years and the other woman very elderly, pregnant for the first time. Both women, in giving full assent to God to enter into their lives, are utterly transformed. Their lives are turned upside down. That is what happens when God is invited into human lives. Over these weeks of Advent we have heard the prophets and John the Baptist proclaim that when God is invited into human history God’s peace will reign, mountains will be made low, crooked roads made straight, deserts will bloom will flowers and vegetation and dry places run with life-giving water. Wolves and lambs will lie down in peace, as well as leopards and goats, lions and cows. Little children will play with poisonous snakes and not be bitten. Nations will come to the mountain of God and feast around the table of God, weapons of war made into plows and pruning hooks, and war abolished forever from human life. Human life will be turned upside down and a new way of life begun.
In order for all this to happen we have to take the words of St. Elizabeth, spoken at the end of today’s Gospel, very, very seriously. She spoke to Mary, “Blessed are you who believed that was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” As we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus, do we as his followers truly believe what he spoke to us, or do we not take Jesus’ teachings seriously? Are we to be counted among those “blessed” who believe and want our lives turned upside down by God?
The week prior to Advent, Pope Francis lamented humanity’s unwillingness to believe what Jesus taught. His homily generated headlines like “Pope Francis called Christmas a charade” or, “Pope Francis calls Christmas phony,” However some news agencies interpreted what the Pope preached that day, that was not what he preached. To clear up any misconception, the Vatican released the text of his homily. This is what Pope Francis said:
“Jesus approaches Jerusalem, and seeing the city on a hill from a distance, weeps, and says, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes. Today Jesus weeps as well: because we have chosen the way of war, the way of hatred, the way of enmities. We are close to Christmas: there will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes – all decked out – while the world continues to wage war. The world has not understood the way of peace.”
The Pope went on to say, “Everywhere there is war today, there is hatred.” The Pope then asked, “What shall remain in the wake of this war, in the midst of which we are living now? What shall remain? Ruins, thousands of children without education, so many innocent victims: and lots of money in the pockets of arms dealers.” Pope Francis then said that Jesus called those who make money from war, weapon manufacturers, the dealers of weapons and the politicians who profit from war, cursed, criminals. The Pope went on to say that Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers!’ A war can be justified – so to speak – with many, many reasons, but when all the world as it is today, at war – piece meal though that war may be – a little here, a little there, and everywhere – there is no justification – and God weeps. Jesus weeps.”
Pope Francis concluded his homily that day with these words, “It will do us well to ask the grace of tears for ourselves, for this world that does not recognize the path of peace, this world that lives for war, and then cynically says not to make it. Let us pray for conversion of heart. Here before the door of this Jubilee of Mercy, let us ask that our joy, our jubilation, be this grace: that the world discover the ability to weep for its crimes, for what the world does with war.”
With Pope Francis’ lamentation for our world, and the lack of human belief in the teachings of Jesus, in what can we find hope and joy for the upcoming celebration of Christmas this year? The hope lies in today’s gospel.
Our Blessed Mother, Mary, a young pregnant girl, walks alone without any fear through country populated by robbers and revolutionaries. She is armed only with the baby growing within her womb whom the prophet Isaiah, named long before “wonder-counselor”, “God-Hero”, “Father-Forever”, and “Prince of Peace.” Her belief and her trust in God make her fearless in the face of the violence and war that surrounds her.
Is not the best the way to honor Jesus this Christmas that of emulating the example of Mary and Elizabeth, giving full assent of our wills to the one whom Mary carries within her womb? Are we ready, like Mary and Elizabeth, to say to God, “May it be done unto me according to your word?” Are we ready to take the leap of faith necessary to trust and believe what the Son of God and the Son of Mary taught?
As the living, breathing, visible Body of Christ in the world, we can effect great change if only we as individual members of Christ’s body begin to transform our lives into being peacemakers of Christ. At Christmas we celebrate the light of Christ entering the dark world of humanity. Let us use the light of Christ to examine all the areas of conflict and hate in our lives that need to be transformed, that need to be turned upside down, and ask God and trust God to make us peacemakers of Jesus in our world. From this Christmas on, may our gift to the baby Jesus in the manger be that of being sowers of peace.
Baptized in Jesus Christ, we carry within ourselves the wonder-counselor, God-hero, Father-forever, and Prince of Peace. Without any fear, without any doubt, let us take to heart the words of St. Elizabeth today, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” As the lives of a couple are utterly changed by the birth of their children, so may our lives be transformed into God’s living presence of peace and love.
