Blessed Are We Who Believe What Is Spoken To Us By The Lord Will Be Fulfilled!

How Odd for God to choose the Jews…. So wrote Hilary Belloc.

It just doesn’t make any sense! Why would God do thing this way? I mean – really – Bethlehem? You’ve got to be kidding? Okay, I’ll admit that King David was born in Bethlehem, but come on; lightning does not strike twice in the same place, at least not in the Middle East. What are the odds?

The evangelist Luke begins his gospel with pregnant women and unborn babies. Women in those days had nothing of significance to say and children had no say whatsoever!

All of this it is nonsense to a world that is ever so sophisticated!

Mary has just received the incredible news that the Archangel Gabriel delivers to her. She is to be the Mother of our Savior, the Mother of the Son of God, the Mother of the Eternal Word of the Father, the Word who made the universe! She will bear the King of Israel and the King of Peace!

Mary- young Mary – a teenage girl – consents to God the Holy Spirit and now carries within her womb Jesus the fetus! She is no more than a few days pregnant and yet she dares to risk all and make haste to visit her relative Elizabeth in Judea, far south of Galilee in Judea.

This was not an easy journey nor is it safe by any imagining!. Mary had to travel down into unfriendly Samaria before likely crossing the Jordan River into gentile territory before crossing again to enter Judea n the south.

Imagine the questions Mary had as she journeyed south, yet imagine with what faith and expectation she traveled in the joy of the Holy Spirit!

So it is with us – once we get it, once we get the word of God in our souls, once we get pregnant with the Word of God, there is no stopping us! We must proceed in haste to announce the good news and do the works of faith!

When Mary finally arrived at the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, her mere greeting, her simple hello to Elizabeth causes a paradigm shift and history is changed forever.

For when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb - the infant, of course, was the baby John the Baptizer, and then Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit – all at the word of Mary – and it was because of whom Mary was carrying within her womb!

Elizabeth cried out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

BUT – and this is an important conjunction – Elizabeth says “BUT 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.”

Here we are literally days – or if you are a child – you are counting the hours – 120hours or less- until we celebrate Christmas!

What can we learn from these two pregnant women and these two unborn baby boys?

Imagine the joy! Think about it - if so much joy was shared and expressed before Jesus’ birth, before his teachings, his miracles, and his resurrection from the dead, then how glorious, how awesome will our own celebration of Christmas be now that we know the rest of the story!?

For this infant Jesus is the refulgence of the Father’s glory; the one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times! The same Jesus that will fully mature, accept Baptism, and begin his public ministry to teach us, to heal us, to save us and to redeem us, for He Is the Eternal Word of the Father come down to earth!

Blessed are we who believe what is spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled!

Let us set out in haste to come to the altar! Let us set out in haste to our community and families to fulfill the Word of God! Let us set out in haste to love and serve our Lord and our neighbor!

And wouldn’t it be a wonderful Christmas gift if those we care for and visit and work with said to us:

“But who am I that the servant of the Lord should come to me? For the moment you first came into my life, my soul rejoiced in the love of God, for your mere presence brought peace and joy into my life!

Blessed are we who believe what is spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled!