Third Sunday of Advent,
and we are now at Episode 3 in this first chapter of Luke –
we could entitle this episode “The Plot Thickens.”
In today’s episode Mary skips town.
There is no word as to how she managed to do that.
Maybe the reason she gave was the idea of helping
her older cousin Elizabeth
during her third trimester of pregnancy and with the birth.
At any rate, I speculate that Mary needed to get away to ponder
what had happened to her.
Three months with Elizabeth
and she would then know for sure that she was pregnant.
And she would be with her cousin and Zechariah,
who was, you remember, a high ranking priest at the Temple in Jerusalem.
Surely within such a household of the religious establishment
they might have some words of wisdom for her, some faith insights.
And here is where the story focuses in on an extraordinary scene.
First remember this was during the time of the Roman Empire,
when military rule exerted great power over many smaller nations.
The Empire was extracting resources and wealth from these subjugated countries.
They were strip mining them:
taking the forests, large percentages of their crops,
and whatever else there was of value that could be taxed.
And historically in countries being exploited,
the women were the oppressed of the oppressed.
So in today’s episode – what have we here?
Two women at the focus of the action
and upon whom the rest of the Gospel of Luke depends.
Luke’s Gospel put a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit,
and this episode is electrified by Holy Spirit presence.
In this passage there is a tremendous expression of the Holy Spirit,
the prophetic utterance given through the Spirit
to both of these women
and not just to them,
the unborn child in Elizabeth’s womb,
is also very energetically enlivened
all by the presence of the One whom Mary is carrying
within her own womb.
This is all extremely significant in telling us something about Jesus:
Here just a very short time after Gabriel’s announcement to Mary
and her willingness to participate in what was being asked of her
while still in the first trimester of pregnancy
when the developing fetus was yet just barely taking form,
Jesus is already revealing divine presence,
a divine presence so strong that it energizes
the unborn John the Baptist
and his mother Elizabeth
and Mary, his own mother.
Even from the womb Jesus’ very presence is revealing
the Kingdom of God breaking forth in human awareness.
The Greek words in this passage emphasize a huge bursting forth of energy:
Elizabeth doesn’t just daintily say to Mary,
“Blessed are you among women;”
she explodes with a loud shout.
The baby John doesn’t just give a little kick there in the womb;
he leaps in joy, in ecstasy.
Jesus shows up – even as hardly more than a zygote, fresh from conception –
and this is sufficient to fill those around him with Holy Spirit.
And like the OT prophets,
Elizabeth and Mary both speak prophetically
words that will be repeated through the centuries
in prayer and devotion
as the Hail Mary/Ave Maria of the rosary
and the Magnificat,
the Song of Mary set to countless pieces of music.
Now I want you to notice who the key players are in this passage
who bring us such devotional and liturgical texts
- two women.
Again this is the great reversal –
how power in the world view gets turned upside down
and is revealed through those whom the world sees as weak.
Looking first at Elizabeth, she follows in a lineage of significant women:
Sarah, the mother of Isaac,
Hannah, the mother of Samuel,
the wife of Manoah, mother of Samson
but their significance is first that they were barren
a sign of disfavor, rather than of being favored or blessed
an indication in that culture of shame and rejection.
But as is the witness of so much of the scriptures
God then specially favors those who are marginalized,
who are not the brightest and best, but the more humble,
such as David, 8th son of Jesse of a small tribe,
from a small town, not the big city,
whose lineage includes foreigners and questionable women like
Tamar and Rahab and Ruth.
Elizabeth, like Sarah, supposedly post-menopausal,
now has her reproach taken away,
through the son to be born to her in her old age.
But Mary, now this is a different matter,
a young woman pregnant with new life,
and who would believe her if she were to tell
that this child is self-generated,
has come into being by the word spoken by God.
But to such as these, the power of God is exhibited.
A reversal of what one might expect.
Now Mary may have been a person without status,
a female in a patriarchal world,
without equal rights, indeed, not much more than chattel,
but she was no wimp.
The words that come from her through the Magnificat
are strong words to the core, revolutionary words,
words that have been considered so revolutionary and dangerous
that they were labeled as subversive
in certain Central American countries in recent decades.
In the Magnificat one can see the whole teaching of Jesus in capsule form.
There is a strong parallel here
between the Magnificat and the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.
So this episode of Luke 1 is a powerful expression of hope and joy,
but how does that relate to us today in our current circumstances?
What is the hope we can take from this?
First we need to ask ourselves what do we mean by hope?
Try this definition on for size. It comes from Constance FitzGerald,
a Carmelite nun and theologian.
Hope is the “dynamic of being able to yield unconditionally to God’s future…
hope that exists without the signature of our life and works…”
Another author, Victoria Loorz, refers to the gift of hope
as a “post-doom” spirituality, a “post-doom” spirituality
which is large enough to face climate crises (or pandemic)
and not be driven to despair…
Grounded in the Gospel, such hope affirms that love is stronger than death.”
Post-doom spirituality . . . accepts the fullness of our reality:
the tragedy as well as the beauty.
Facing the reality that we’re standing on a precipice right now,
as a species and as a whole planet, is sobering, to say the least. But facing what is real opens the heart to grief,
which somehow opens the heart to love even more deeply. . . .
looking toward how we can all live our highest quality of life together as beloved community, no matter what.
We do not need to minimize or overlook the pain and tragedy
we encounter as we live in this time of interwoven crises. Eventually, when we recognize that the pain
is directly connected with our love, we can embrace it.
We can move into actions of restoration that are firmly planted in love.”
The words of Victoria Loorz, writer, a pastor of indoor and [outdoor or]
wild churches, as she calls them.
And Mary, bearing within her the energetic Source of all Life,
as her legacy for all generations, gave us the Magnificat,
in which God declared the year of Jubilee,
the time of great reversal
when the powerful and rich are brought down
and the hungry poor are vindicated.
Mary may have been poor and without any status of power and privilege,
but she was one powerful young woman,
May she be a role model for us all.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
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