Our faith is a gift we must share!

Deacon Kevin Gingras

Dec 19, 2021

Fourth Sunday of Advent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121921.cfm

Jesus followed God’s will.  Mary followed God’s will.  What about us, do we follow God’s will?  Did I just compare us to God and the Blessed Mother?  We might think that we are but a small fish in a big sea, how will we be noticed? We aren’t worthy of such a lofty comparison. Who will care about what we have to say?

You, Bethlehem too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler!

Imagine that this is being said about us - You, East Taunton, [or your town too] too small to be among the clans of Fall River Diocese [or your diocese too]!

 

We are not too small in God’s eyes.  We only need to look to the wisdom of Yoda who said:

Size matters not.  Look at me, judge me by my size do you?  And well you should not!

Like Yoda we also have a powerful ally - Yoda’s was the force but ours is far more powerful, for our ally is God.  We must convince others of this ally we have, it’s our duty.

In a recent survey conducted, the majority of people who responded - 67 percent - noted that an invitation from a family member was effective in getting them to attend Church.  Invites from friends and family are also far more effective than from clergy!  We all have a very important job to do!  We must bring Christ to others as Mary did in today’s Gospel.  

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.

A pregnant Mary traveled in haste to see her cousin Elizabeth.  Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant brings Jesus to see her pregnant cousin and John the Baptist leaped before the New Covenant that Mary was carrying; John leaped much like King David who danced before the Ark of the Old Covenant in chapter 6 of the book of Samuel.  In that same chapter, we read that the Ark of the Old Covenant remained in the house of Obed-edom for three months.  Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months as well.

Mary’s difficult journey to bring Jesus to her cousin Elizabeth and John was from Nazareth to, most likely, a town called Ein Kerem in the hill country of Judah.  The journey would have been about 90 miles.  Today we have email, telephones (probably in most of our purses or pockets right now so I hope your ringers are turned off)  We also have social media; however, sometimes a personal face-to-face invite is the best.  We don’t have to travel 90 miles, and if we do it’s probably in a car and not walking.  Your invite could be what brings Christ to them just like Mary did for Elizabeth who proclaimed:

Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled

I often wonder if, when Elizabeth said those words if her husband Zechariah heard her speak them as well?  Was he in the room with them?  If so, was Elizabeth making a dig at Zechariah who did not believe what was spoken to him by an angel of the Lord and was thus struck mute for his doubt?  More questions for heaven I suppose, I’ll have to wait for those answers.

Speaking of waiting, how are we doing waiting during this Advent season?  I reflect on that a lot.  I figure there are two ways we can wait for and anticipate the arrival of Jesus.  It brings me back to my childhood when there were two things my mother might say:

1. When your father gets home we will go out to dinner for Chinese food (boy how I loved those nights). 

   -or she might say-

2. You just WAIT until your father gets home.

Both of these statements set me waiting for my dad.  One was definitely not as good as the other and both depended on my behavior that day.

God wants us to be waiting in joyful anticipation, not anxious and fearful anticipation.  God wants a close fatherly relationship with us. The sacrifices of the Old Covenant were not as fatherly as the New, they were a pale shadow of the close relationship we can gain after God sacrificed his only son Jesus for us in the New Covenant.  The sacrifices of old only reminded people that their sin is still present, kind of like the “you just wait until your father gets home” idea.  It is only through the Lamb of God, Jesus, that we have the removal of our sins.  First, we need to realize that close relationship with God in our own lives by purifying it in the sacrament of Confession.  Only then can we wait joyfully for him as if he were coming to take us out for Chinese food.   Of course, once we have that joy we need to share that with others like Mary did with Elizabeth and John the Baptist.

God sent Jesus to become the perfect sacrifice for us since we could not do it on our own.  Mary, well, she was the other human to perfectly and obediently do God’s will.  She then shared that gift with all of mankind but more directly, with her cousin Elizabeth as we see in today’s Gospel.  We must do as Mary did and bring Christ to others.  Our faith is a gift that we simply must share!  We have much work to do!

Today I’ll leave you with a quote from Bishop Robert Barron who said:

The minute you walk outside of your church on Sunday you’re in mission territory.