A Christmas visit: Mary and Elizabeth

Mary and Elizabeth by Dorothy Webster Hawksley
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
(Scriptures for today's liturgy)

Beginning yesterday afternoon and through today
thousands of people are stranded in airports this morning,
many delayed on trips to visit family and friends at Christmas.

Even if we’re not traveling far for Christmas
many of us will visit locally with family, friends and neighbors
- or they’ll come to visit us.

Children may be expecting a visit resulting in toys under the tree
and their parents will be expecting a visit from a letter carrier
bringing credit card bills.

We look forward to some visits: other visits - not so much.
A few days ago I visited a place I don’t like to visit at all:
Burlington Mall!

And in today’s gospel, there’s some visiting going on:
we find Mary visiting her older kinswoman, Elizabeth,
traveling out to the hill country to see her.

This scene, this encounter between two pregnant women,
is called the Visitation.
Those who pray the Rosary
know this as the second joyful mystery.

It’s a great story for us to read just before Christmas
because Christmas celebrates the greatest visitor in human history:
God’s visit to his people, in Christ, some 2000 years ago.
God’s visit to the world began in just the same way
each of our visits into the world began:
through the door of a mother’s womb.

We’re blessed to have on our parish staff a woman expecting a child
and Andrea speaks often about her baby moving and kicking within her,
just as Elizabeth did when she told Mary,
“As soon as I heard your voice, the child within me leaped for joy!”

Elizabeth was carrying John who would be called the Baptist
and in her heart she already understood who was the Child
who had visited, made a home in Mary’s womb.

And it’s with joy that we recognize Christ, born of Mary,
whose visit wasn’t over in a day or month or even a lifetime.

Jesus didn’t just “stop by” - he moved in.
He moved into: our history, our hearts and our hopes;
our problems and pain; our worries and wounds;
our dreams and desires; our past, our present and our future.
Jesus came to visit - and he’s never left us…

Christmas is a time for renewing family relationships and friendships.
At this time of year,
we try to be especially warm and welcoming of one another
- and even of strangers.

It’s a time to be especially warm in welcoming the Lord, too,
and especially to welcome him into the places in our hearts and lives
where we sometimes tell him “there’s no room in the inn for you there.”

He knows our hearts’ desires
and promises to fulfill the deepest needs we have.
Every week the Lord renews his visit with us by sharing this table,
and sharing his life with us in the meal, the sacrifice of the Eucharist.

As we welcome friends and family at Christmas time,
as the Lord welcomes us here at the altar,
may we welcome him and come to believe
that all that is promised in his divine visit will be fulfilled.