Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, C, Vigil
December 21, 2024
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.21.24_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3
The following text guided the homily:
* This is Msgr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be back with you at the end of the program as we together try to enter into the consequential conversation God wants to have with each of us this Sunday, as we begin our proximate preparation for Christmas. On the Fourth Sunday of Advent each year, the Church always has us focus on the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church does this not merely because Mary has an obviously unforgettable role in the birth and life of Jesus. The real reason is because the Blessed Mother is the model of how we should be living our advent. Mary is, we could say, the personification of Advent. God the Father, through her Immaculate Conception, had prepared her from the first moment of her life to be a worthy mother of his Son. Like a faithful daughter of Israel, she had prayed throughout her youth for the coming of the Messiah. When she was a young girl, she discovered that she was part of God’s answer to that prayer, but in a way that would far have exceeded any Hebrew maiden’s prayers: not only would the Messiah be her son, but her Son would also be God. Her “yes!” to the Archangel Gabriel launched the immediate preparation for the birth of Jesus the Messiah. Each year on the fourth Sunday of Advent, we explicitly follow the footsteps Mary traced on that first Advent. In doing so, we’re doing more than traversing the physiological and historical events that preceded the birth of the Lord. We’re entering into Mary’s response of faith, which is a guide for us along our own pilgrimage of faith. And so with the Lord, let us climb within Mary’s womb, so to speak, and listen to the beat of her contemplative heart, which was treasuring within this greatest of all mysteries, so that our Christmas may be fruitful like that first Christmas.
* Today we travel with Mary to Ein Karim, the birthplace of St. John the Baptist. During the Annunciation, after the Archangel Gabriel had told Mary that the power of the Most High would overshadow her and she would conceive in her womb a Son whom she would call Jesus, Gabriel told her as well that her cousin, Elizabeth, had also conceived a son in her old age. As soon as the Archangel departed from Nazareth, Mary, too, made plans to leave. Although she was still a young teenager, she “went with haste” to take care of her elderly kinswoman who was pregnant for the first time. We know, today, that if a woman is pregnant in her 40s, there are many health risks. It is possible that Elizabeth was considerably older than that, and we know that ancient Middle Eastern healthcare was nothing to brag about. Without question, Elizabeth would have needed some assistance. But the Angel didn’t command Mary to go to help her. He didn’t even suggest that it would be a good thing for her to go. He just stated the fact that Elizabeth was pregnant. That was enough for Mary to spring into action. Mary’s love spawned in her the desire to help out. Mary’s example of care for those in need is an example for us all.
* Ein Karim was located 4.5 miles outside of Jerusalem, which was 60 miles from Nazareth. For Mary to get there, first she would have had to walk about 40 miles downhill into the plains of Jericho, then very steeply uphill for about 20 miles to the Holy City of Jerusalem, before crossing the Holy City and descending to Zechariah’s house. None of that apparently scared her.
Episode: https://catholicpreaching.com/wp/fourth-sunday-of-advent-c-conversations-with-consequences-podcast-december-21-2024/
Podcast: https://catholicpreaching.com/wp/category/audio-homily/podcast/
