Homily of Most Rev. Charles John Brown D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines
Seventh Day of Simbang Gabi | Saturday, December 21, 2024
“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled,” (Lk. 1:45).
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
For me, as your Papal Nuncio, it gives me a lot of joy and happiness to be with you here this evening in Landmark, in Mary Mother of Hope Chapel, for this Seventh Day of Simbang Gabi Mass in preparation for our glorious celebration of Christmas, coming next week.
Today, is also the Fourth Sunday of Advent. I am very grateful to Msgr. Regie Malicdem for having invited me to celebrate this Mass with all of you this evening. It's so gratifying to see how crowded the chapel is tonight.
Our Lady, A Woman of Service
So, our Gospel this evening is the Gospel of the Visitation (Lk 1:39-45). To set the context of this Gospel, we need to go back to Nazareth, to March 25, nine months before Christmas. When the angel Gabriel was sent by God to Nazareth, and spoke to Our Lady, to Mary, and asked her to be the Mother of God. Mary, of course, at the end of that Gospel of the Annunciation, says, “Let it be done to me according to thy word” (Lk. 1:38). Before the angel leaves, the angel said something to Mary, back on the 25th of March; and that was this, “Behold, your relative, your cousin, Elizabeth, has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month of her pregnancy, she who was thought to be sterile; for nothing will be impossible with God.” (Lk. 1:36-37). “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
The angel says this to Our Lady back on March 25. Then the Gospel that we heard tonight begins. “Mary set out in haste and traveled to the hill country of Judah” (Lk. 1:39). So, what happens? Mary hears from the angel Gabriel that her cousin Elizabeth, who's quite elderly, has miraculously conceived a child; and Mary, on her own, decides that she is going to go to help Elizabeth in her pregnancy. Mary, who has just become pregnant by the Holy Spirit on March 25 by the message of the angel Gabriel, then leaves Nazareth and goes out to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, to help her in her pregnancy.
It is interesting—the angel did not tell Mary, “You are to go to Elizabeth and help her.” No. The angel simply said, “Your cousin, who is thought to be barren, is now pregnant in her sixth month”. So, Mary simply heard the information and made her own decision in the very first days of her pregnancy to leave Nazareth and walk the length of Israel, all the way down to near Jerusalem, where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived. So, the first thing we see in that is the amazing goodness of Mary, the beautiful, spontaneous goodness of Our Lady. Our Lady who doesn't think about herself, who doesn't think about her unbelievably miraculous pregnancy that has just begun, but is thinking about her cousin; and doesn't need to be told by God or by the angel, “Go help your cousin”. She just goes.
That's the way Our Lady is. She's always, even now in our own lives as Catholics, watching over us and interceding for us, and behind the scenes helping us. Because she's spontaneously good and beautiful. That's why you Filipinos are known as the “Pueblo Amante de Maria,” “People Who Love Our Lady.” Because we see the beauty of Our Lady. Her spontaneous goodness, her wonderful maternal care. So, off she goes to the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Then the Gospel that we read tonight takes place. She arrives and she enters the house of Zechariah. She greets Elizabeth.
Our Lady, the New Ark of the Covenant
Then, the second point, which I would like to pause with a moment this evening. We have that amazing exchange: when Elizabeth hears Mary's voice, the baby in Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy, stirs, moves, and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and says those famous words that we pray in the Hail Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and Blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk. 1:42).
So, Elizabeth feels the baby moving in her own womb. That baby, of course, is John the Baptist. It's quite interesting, isn't it? That the first person in the Gospel to recognize the presence of Jesus in the world, Jesus whom we believe, and we will confess in a moment to be “God from God. True God from true God. Light from Light. True God from true God.” God made man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The first person to recognize Jesus outside of Our Lady is an unborn baby—is little John the Baptist in his mother's womb. He senses the presence of another unborn child.
This amazing meeting of two women with child, one very old: Elizabeth, too old to become pregnant, but miraculously made pregnant; and Our Lady, also miraculously pregnant, because she was, of course, a virgin. That meeting of the two, and the two unborn children—and Little John the Baptist jumps for joy.
There's a tradition that this took place, this meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, in a place now in Israel called Ein Kerem, near Jerusalem, as I said. Traditionally, it's also the place where, centuries before, King David, took the so-called “Ark of the Covenant” and brought it from that area outside of Jerusalem into Jerusalem and placed the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple.
What was the Ark of the Covenant? It was this ornamental chest, or container, or box in which the Jewish people kept all their most precious things—like bits and pieces of the 10 Commandments, other things, even a bit of the manna from heaven, was kept in this ornamental chest. David brings that container to Jerusalem. David the great warrior, the King, the conqueror, the victor, danced in front of the Ark of the Covenant. In 2 Samuel, Chapter 6 in the Old Testament, we read about David the great king, dancing in front of the Ark of the Covenant, this box with holy things in it, this container.
So, in the Old Testament, in the same area, David is dancing in front of the old Ark of the Covenant. In the New Testament, a “new David” we can say, the little John the Baptist, the baby in his mother's womb, is jumping and dancing for joy in front of Our Lady, who we call as Catholics, the “Ark of the Covenant” in the litany. Right? Because Mary is the one who contains God in her body. The one who has brought God into the world by saying “yes” to God's plan.
So, the first Ark of the Covenant with David, the second Ark of the Covenant with Our Lady, this beautiful correspondence between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures—how the Christian Scriptures fulfill, in a miraculous way, everything that was pre-indicated or previewed in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Our Lady, A Woman of Faith
Thirdly, finally, there's those beautiful words that Elizabeth says to Mary at the end of the Gospel this evening, which I recited at the very beginning of my little homily this evening. “Blessed are you who believed.” Isn't that wonderful? As Elizabeth says to Mary, “Blessed are you who believed?”
What makes Mary “blessed” is that she was a woman of faith. She believed in God. She believed in the angel. She believed what the angel told her about Elizabeth was true. Because she didn't have a telephone, she didn't have WhatsApp. She couldn't check with Elizabeth, “Are you really pregnant down there near Jerusalem?” No. She had to go. She trusted. She believed that what the angel told her was true, that she also would be the mother of God.
For us, as Christians, as Catholics, we are blessed by believing. When we believe, when we have faith, we begin to see the world in a different way. We're looking at the world with different glasses. We see God's action all around us. Without faith, it's difficult to see that, but with faith, we begin to see the glory of God, the wonders of God, the miracles of God, which are somewhat invisible to those who don't have faith.
So, for us and for all of us preparing for Christmas, “Blessed are we who have believed.” Blessed is the gift of faith. Let's thank God for faith. Thank God for the gift of faith; and ask God, “Lord,” as the apostles say in the Gospel, “increase my faith” (Lk. 17:5). “Help me to believe, help me to see, help me to understand, help me to know my place in the world, and what you have in mind for me. Then I will find joy.” “Blessed are you who believed.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I greet you, in the name of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. I ask you, as I always do, don't forget to pray for Pope Francis. Whenever I go to Rome, he asks me to ask you, Filipino people, for whom he has so much affection and love. Pray for Pope Francis, he needs our prayers. So, please pray for him, and have a blessed two more days of Simbang Gabi, and then Christmas Eve, and a glorious and beautiful Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year.
Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo
Cover Photo from Mary Mother of Hope Landmark Chapel Facebook page
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