Back when I was a young priest, while I was associate pastor at St. Mildred Church in Somerset, Kentucky, I designed several large banners for the church. Banners were very popular back in the 1970s. The people seemed to
appreciate most of them, but one of them raised more than one old lady's
eyebrows. It pictured a very pregnant Mary, sitting in a rocking chair deep in
meditation, her arms folded carefully over her swollen abdomen. I was trying to
capture the words of the gospel in the Annunciation story: “Mary was deeply
troubled by the angel's words and wondered what his greeting meant.” I tried to
imagine Mary sitting around her house trying to figure out what her surprise pregnancy meant
and where her life would lead. After all, she was an unwed mother in the eyes
of the Jewish law of her day. Well, the banner was seen as a bit blasphemous in the eyes
of some of the very pious. l stood my ground and it went up every year while I
was there. The people finally got used to it and many came to love it.
In the first chapter of Luke,
Mary is called “blessed” no fewer than three times, once by the angel Gabriel
and twice by her cousin Elizabeth in today’s text. “Blessedness” is not all it’s
cracked up to be! It’s certainly not all peaches and cream, not by a long shot. Mary was
granted the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God. Because of the blessedness, her heart was
filled with a mixture both joy and sorrow. It was almost as if she could smell a rat! Her blessedness came to be a sword piercing her heart.
It would lead someday to seeing her son hanging on a cross, spit on and despised
by a mocking crowds.
To be chosen and blessed
by God has its ups and downs. It means great joy and it means great sorrow. Ask
anyone who has ever had such a call from God! Ask Peter, Paul, John the Baptist, any
of the martyrs, Theresa, Augustine, Joseph, Abraham and Sarah, Jeremiah, Jonah
or Isaiah. Ask any of the millions of parents, priests and sisters – anyone who
have been called by God for some special task. The raw truth is that God does
not choose a person for ease and comfort, but to use that person for his
special designs and purposes. To be called by God is a scary adventure. With that
honor and privilege comes awesome responsibility. Nowhere can we better see the
paradox of blessedness than in the life of Mary. She had the joy of being the mother
of the Son of God but she also had to face the ridicule of her neighbors, the
possibility of being abandoned by Joseph, the disappearance of Jesus for three
days when he was a boy, the possibility that he had lost his mind when he was a
young rabbi and, finally, his cruel and tortured death when he was a young man.
Mary was “blessed” alright.
However, the gospels honor her not so much for her unique and privileged
position as “mother” as for her total trust in God no matter what! “Blessed are
you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” As
the privileged mother we can admire her. As one who totally trusts God, in good
times and bad, we can emulate her!
Like Mary’s “blessedness,” this holiday season will, no doubt, be a confusing mixture of joy and sadness. I have heard story after story of happy engagements, heroic generosity, new families being reunited, reconciliations among old enemies, beautiful celebrations and jobs found. I have also heard a lot of sad stories about unemployment, terrible sickness, old people in nursing homes who cannot die, broken marriages, family fights and auto accidents. In fact for me, being “blessed” by God means being in a position to be able to absorb these stories. One minute I will get a letter from a parishioner who tells me how much closer he or she has drawn to God because of a homily I have given or something I have written; the next minute the phone rings telling mg me about a newly discovered cancer or upcoming surgery. One minute I am going to a Christmas party; the next minute l am on my way to a friend's funeral. One morning I am stopped by someone in the street who gushes with compliments about something I have done for them; by midafternoon I get a royal chewing out by someone else for something I have overlooked or forgotten.
A priest’s life,
much like a parent’s life, is often a blessed life and often a pain-filled life. Many of you parents have told me about one of your children who brought you so much joy as a child who now brings you so much pain as a young adult with their addictions and bad choices. The life of a priest and the life of a parent can often be very much alike. We can be forced into situations where we laugh one minute and cry the next, all
in a day’s time!
Most evenings, when it all
quiets down and I am alone with my thoughts, I just sit down in a big chair with my journal and
wonder what it all means. Some evenings, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Like Mary in her rocking chair in that old banner I designed years ago, I just sit there and wonder what it all means and where it will all lead. Like Mary kneeling
before the angel Gabriel, I am reminded of words like: “Do not fear,” “God is at work here," and "Trust God, believe in yourself and dare to dream.”
My friends, on this
fourth Sunday of Advent, the church holds Mary up to us as a model of complete trust
in God - in good times and in bad, through thick and thin. Somehow, many of us have gotten
the impression that problems, pain and disillusionment are signs of God's
absence. Mary teaches us that all our confusing mixtures of joy and sorrow are actually signs of “blessedness,” signs that God is indeed active in our lives and all our troubles can eventually be turned to good.
My friends, don't let Advent go by this year without a few minutes in a rocking chair with Mary, pondering what the events of your life mean. Advent is a time to renew our commitment to trust God no matter what, and patiently wait for insight into what it all means and direction on how to proceed! When we don't have answers is when we need to trust - to trust that God is an charge and that all things will eventually turn out for the good.
"Blessed
are we who have believed that what was spoken to us by the Lord will be
fulfilled."
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