4th Sunday of Advent - homily

If you could choose one place in the world to visit, what would it be? A week from now with all this snow still around, you’d probably just go for someplace warm! I would choose Israel, the Holy Land. I would want to go where God lived on Earth! I have been blessed to have done some traveling in my life. The weird thing is is that all of the main places I’ve been have started with the letter “I”: Italy, India, Ireland, Idaho (!). And now, I hope to go to Israel. I realized that Israel is where I most wanted to go when I went to Italy, specifically Rome.

Rome is spectacular! The churches and cathedrals are so beautiful, they are overwhelming. My favorite part of Rome was the “Holy Steps”. These are the steps that our Lord used to meet with Pontius Pilate before his death. These are the very steps that God walked on! They were transferred from Jerusalem to Rome in the 4th century by the emperor, Constantine. It was so amazing to ascend these steps; some people were on their knees going up them out of reverence. I realized there that I wanted to be in the places where Jesus walked, was born, and preached…where God was on Earth 2000 years ago.

God on Earth! It’s an amazing reality. It’s what we celebrate this Friday at Christmas. Mary was the first person to receive God on Earth in the flesh. She was also the first person to bring God to the “ends of the earth”. Our first reading says that God “shall bring his greatness to the ends of the earth”. He does this first through Mary. She brings the greatness of God to her family members, Elizabeth and John. They truly have an experience of the greatness of God. They are filled with great joy and peace. We are filled with the greatness of God whenever someone brings God to us. We, too, are filled with great joy and peace.

We are called to imitate Mary in bringing God to the ends of the Earth. For us this Christmas, this means bringing God to the ends of our family. Like Mary, we might have rough terrain to pass through to bring God to our family. From what I understand, Mary traveled over 70 miles of rocky, hill country to see Elizabeth. You all trudged through two feet of snow, ice, and slush to get to Mass today. All of this physical rough terrain symbolizes the rough terrain in our families: resentments, bitterness, hostility, anger, grudges, maybe even hatred. We are called to get through this rough terrain to bring God to ht ends of our family. We are called to bring peace – maybe be a peacemaker in our family – and joy to the ends of our family in imitation of Mary. We mainly do this in our actions and in our presence. Mary doesn’t even say anything in this Gospel and she brings tremendous joy to her family members. May we imitate Mary’s example in bring God to the ends of the earth.

Finally, we don’t need to go to Israel to experience God on Earth. We experience God on Earth at every Mass in the Eucharist. God will be here on this altar just as he was present 2000 years ago on Earth. And, just like Mary, we will have Him inside us in Holy Communion. Let us all be like the Blessed Mother in bringing the Lord to others. Let us imitate her in bringing his peace, joy, and love to the ends of the Earth, to the ends of our family this Christmas.