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Institute for Homiletics

A Collaboration of The Catholic Foundation and the University of Dallas

Fourth Sunday of Advent

More Than Mere Optimism

When I was in my twenties, I had an “Elizabeth.” I was very pregnant with my first child. She had nine. Sitting at her kitchen table, we talked about God. We talked about faith. We talked about children. When I’d come to visit her, joy visibly leapt into her smile.  As my belly swelled and the baby rolled around, I’d rest my elbow on her huge kitchen table and absorb her wisdom. 

What Carol (my Elizabeth’s name) taught me was that God  believes in babies. Even when we are tempted to lose hope in the future, God keeps sending new little people into this world. It is  God’s mark of trust in the human race—even when we keep mucking it up, the good Lord says, “Let’s try again. Maybe they’ll get it right  this time.” When she would say that, it would make me laugh. It gave me hope. 

In Luke’s Gospel, two women also come together. The younger  runs to the older. Yet it is Elizabeth who swells with elation as her baby jumps within her. We still pray her joyful exclamation to Mary:  “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Elizabeth is filled with expectation. 

Hope isn’t just a psychological manufacturing of inner optimism.  Hope is a human being. The writing from Hebrews says “a body you prepared for me.” That body was not very big when unborn John the  Baptist leapt for joy. God believes in us enough to become one of us.  Hope comes in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 

In a few days, we will celebrate the coming of that tiny person— the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. We may have mucked it up in the past, but this Christmas, God offers another chance: “Let’s try again. Maybe they’ll get it right this time.” 

Consider/Discuss 

  • God believes in people. God works through the many “Elizabeths” in this  world, both male and female—people who recognize and follow the Lord  and thus embody goodness and kindness and love. Has there been an Elizabeth for you? How did he or she help you to grow in faith? 
  • Some in the field of psychology suggest that religion is simply a way of coping with life’s difficulties, that those who believe in Jesus are . . . well . . . just a little backward and simple; religion is no longer necessary in our scientific age. But what if there is no Other to turn to, no God who holds us up, no redemption from darkness? Where is hope? In these final days of  Advent, ponder this: Is the idea of God just wishful thinking or is God the  reality who holds up your life? As you behold the baby in the manger this Christmas, ask the Holy Spirit to swell within you with a renewed dose of the gifts of faith, hope, and love.

Living and Praying with the Word 

Lord God, Creator of the world, the psalmist says thank you  to God, who “knit me in my mother’s womb” and says thank you  “because I am wonderfully made.” Thank you for creating me. Help  me to start anew this week of Christmas, to recognize that you  believe in me. In times of temptation, help me to hold doggedly fast  to you. In times of despair, help me to cling to you alone as my hope.  Thank you for coming into this world in such a small and obscure  way in the womb of a young girl, who was willing to shelter and  grow you for nine months. Thank you for her Elizabeth. Thank you for our “Elizabeths” who give us hope by embodying you. Thank you, thank you most of all for daring to take a chance on us.

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Scripture Study for

The prophet Micah, along with Isaiah and other prophets, expected that one day God would raise up a righteous ruler in the line of David.  (Before the end of the monarchy, a long line of “bad kings” gave rise  to this hope. Later, this hope remained alive after the destruction  of the monarchy.) David’s ancestral home was the insignificant and  tiny Bethlehem, which was part of the clan of Ephrathah (Ruth 1:2; 1 Samuel 17:12). Davidic rulers were representatives of God and thus the ideal ruler would be a righteous and caring shepherd of God’s people, protecting them against foreign and domestic enemies  that threatened their well-being and peace. As such, the Davidic ruler is the agent of God’s own care for the people in times of weal or woe. 

In his exploration of what God has accomplished in Christ, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews draws extensively on the Jewish  scriptures to make the case that Jesus has been sent to fulfill God’s  will completely and perfectly. Here the author draws on the Greek version of Psalm 40 to argue that Jesus came into the world (with a body) to do away with inadequate sacrifices and replace them with the sacrifice of his own body, thus accomplishing perfectly God’s  will: behold, I come to do your will. This will is not specifically that Jesus should sacrifice himself, but that through his sacrifice all people would be “consecrated” to God in him. 

An overarching theme throughout all of scripture is the divine desire that human beings learn to be able to trust in God, specifically that God has their welfare in mind and desires what is good for them,  all of them as individuals and as a single people. This trust also entails believing God’s promises of future blessedness for all of creation.  Such trust, or faith, is difficult for humans to “achieve,” which is why God and then Jesus emphasize it so much. It is not surprising,  then, that Elizabeth rejoices that Mary believed—trusted—that what God had announced to her would come to pass. It is Mary’s trusting faith that prepares her to give birth to God’s Messiah.

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