Fourth Sunday of Advent, cycle C

Luke 1:39 - 45

I’m sure you've had the experience of thinking you know someone, and then discovering that you had it all wrong.

We Catholics have been brainwashed, I think. There is hardly anything in the New Testament about Mary, so down through the ages we've evolved this image which we see in statues and stained glass windows – a young woman, almost always dressed in blue and white, wearing something like a nun’s habit, eyes cast down, hands folded. Passive and pious. Of course we have other images, but they don’t stray too far from what I've described. Even our manger scenes this time of year generally have her kneeling as she worships her newborn son. And down through the ages this is all reinforced. She says to Saint Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception” “Build a Church in my honor’, she tells Juan Diego. “Have them make a medal”, she tells St. Catherine Laboure. And so it goes. I believe Mary has appeared to many saints down through the ages, and maybe told them things along those lines. But if she did it was at the request of her Son, not on her own. The Mary I know would not do that.

So what do we know about Mary from the Bible? Today we hear that she went to her cousin Elizabeth in haste. I think that’s a good adjective for Mary. When the angel appeared to her, and scholars think she was about 12 to 14 years old, Gabriel says, “you are going to be the mother of the Messiah”. And Mary doesn't fall on the floor and shake with fright; she replies, “How can that be? I don’t have a husband.” Mary knows where babies come from. And when the angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will do the job, she replies, and I am paraphrasing, “Do to me what you say will happen.” Mary doesn't want to wait around to do what God wants of her. Once she knows His will, she is totally on board.

Right after the annunciation she goes to Elizabeth in haste. Why? She learned from the angel that Elizabeth, against all expectations, was expecting a child as well. Did Mary seek out her older cousin to share her own news? I think there were many reasons Mary went in haste to Elizabeth. One very human reason was that Mary probably had no one to turn to when she discovered she was pregnant. Tell mother and father? Not a great idea. Tell Joseph? No. Who might understand? Cousin Elizabeth! The angel said she was with child as well. But on another note, I think Luke gives us a hint. He tells us that Elizabeth is in the sixth month of her pregnancy and Mary stays with her for three months. Mary is there to help out. She will cook and clean and sweep; Zachary and Elizabeth are elderly; Zachary has lost his voice, and Mary goes to help them out until they get back on their feet. And she does so with haste. She sees this menial task as God’s will, and can’t get there fast enough.

And of course we have one more moment to think about. The Wedding Feast of Cana. We don’t know Mary’s relationship with the young couple. Since the story only appears in the Gospel of John, some people have speculated that John is the one being married. But whatever the case, Mary does not sit quietly in the corner. She says, and I again paraphrase, “Son, they have no wine. Fix this!” Mary notices a problem and immediately, in haste, does something about it. I don’t know what she expected Jesus to do – maybe go to the local wine merchant and buy some more wine – but she knows that if she asks, he will do whatever he can.

So what little we know about Mary from the scriptures make her anything but a passive icon. She isn’t afraid to be pregnant and go through childbirth, which in those days was a lot more dangerous and painful than it is now. She isn’t above cooking and cleaning and taking out the trash for Zachary and Elizabeth. And she isn’t one to sit by and watch a young couple’s special time be ruined.

And why is this? I think Elizabeth tells us. She says, “Blessed are you among women!” And “Blessed is she who believed the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.”

Mary is blessed because she believes the Lord. She is free of original sin, so there is nothing in her that doubts that God loves her, that God wants the best for her, that God will never desert her. She is free of original sin, so there is nothing in her that fights against what God wants her to do. Being in haste, haste to do God’s will, is a characteristic of those who are freed from original sin. I’m sure you can think of many saints who were like this. And when you think about it, you and I are freed from original sin. We still suffer from having had original sin at one point, so we have a little disadvantage compared to Mary. But we also know that God loves us and wants the best for us; and we know what God wants us to do. We’ve got the commandments, we’ve got the Church, and we’ve got our consciences. God speaks through all of these to us. So as we once again await the birth of our Lord, let us resolve to go in haste to do God’s will.