Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

December 21, 2023

Hello and welcome to the Word, bringing you the Good News of Jesus Christ every day from the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province. I am Fr. Karl Esker from the Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, NY. Today is Thursday of the Third Week of Advent.

Our reading today is taken from the holy gospel according to Luke.

Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

The gospel of the Lord.

Homily

Here we are, just four days before Christmas, and our gospels these days show us how God prepared the way for Jesus, the Son of God, to come into our world. Today we hear part of the beautiful story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. But before we go into the gospel, I would like to spend a moment with the first reading from the Canticle of Canticles. It is one of the rare times we read from this book in our liturgies. It is a love song, which may be why some schools are banning it from their libraries, but we read it as a love letter between God and his people. First the people cry out: “Hark! my lover –- here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills,” to which God replies: ‘O my dove ... Let me see you, let me hear your voice, For your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”

Now, imagine Mary with Jesus already in her womb making the trip from Nazareth to a village near Jerusalem to visit Elizabeth. Jesus, the Son of God, is making his way into our world to be our Savior. And Elizabeth greets Mary: “how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” When Mary, the handmaid of the Lord and full of the Holy Spirit, heard that her cousin was also with child, the love of God impelled her to go to her cousin in her moment of need.

Recognizing the grace that was before her, Elizabeth exults in the Holy Spirit, as does the child in her womb: “For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Thus, John the herald makes his first proclamation of the coming of the savior, and it is one of joy.

Many saints, including our own Saint Alphonsus heralded the Incarnation, the coming of God into our world and taking on the flesh of our humanity, as a supreme act of love by God for his creation, especially humanity. And while we consider Mary singularly most beautiful in God’s eyes, we are all objects of God’s love, to whom he says: “let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”

Our sinfulness does not take away from God’s love for us. He wants us close to himself through prayer and especially through loving one another; and as we grow closer to God, we leave sin behind. God did not come down to earth to judge the earth, but because he saw our need for God. In the same spirit, Mary did not wait for Elizabeth to ask for help; she saw a need and went to do what she could. Our efforts will not always get the reception Mary’s received, but as we do our part to address the human needs around us, we become heralds of God’s love. And as John rejoiced in his mother’s womb at the arrival of the Savior, may we and the world rejoice at the fruits of God’s love in us.

May God bless you.

Fr. Karl E. Esker

Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help

Brooklyn, NY