4th Sunday of Advent 2021

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
December 19, 2021

My brothers and sisters in Christ, ¹

As I was saying, we are in the final days of our Advent journey! Christmas is almost here!

And our readings today bring our attention to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother. We are invited throughout the holy season of Advent, and especially in these final days before Christmas, to reflect deeply on Mary’s faith.

So, we are presented today with the familiar story of her Visitation to St. Elizabeth.

As we know, Mary has been told by the Angel Gabriel that she is to conceive a Child by the Holy Spirit, and he also told her that Elizabeth, her cousin, was also with child, even in her old age, because nothing is impossible with God.

So in today’s reading, Mary sets out. It is about ninety miles away, so it takes several days. And it is, it was at that time especially, a difficult journey; we don’t know if she traveled with St. Joseph, the Gospel only tells us that she went.

And then we see the beautiful surprise of Elizabeth’s encounter with Christ. She is filled with the Holy Spirit, and she cries out in joy: “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

My brothers and sisters, there is nothing more beautiful than to meet Jesus Christ. That is what the Visitation teaches us.

But today we also call our attention to the fact that God works in mysterious and hidden ways. He works through the small, through the weak, he works through those who seem insignificant in the eyes of the world.

We just heard that in the first reading of today’s Mass, in the prophecy of Micah, he says: “You Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be the ruler in Israel.”

So the Savior, he tells us, will be born from a tiny city — Bethlehem — a small city, not well-known.

But God promises that in this tiny city, a child will be born and “his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth.”

This is how God works. He does not enter the world with an army of angels. He does not come as a victorious king. He comes with no wealth, no power. He comes as a little baby, the most powerless and vulnerable among us.

And then, as we know, the coming of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in human history — it changes the world, and it changes every human life. But God prepares for this great event — not with a great public announcement — but in the quiet lives of ordinary people.

Mary and Elizabeth are good, faithful women, leading normal lives, just like their neighbors. And yet God invites each one of them to enter into his great plan of love for history.

This is how it is with God! This is how he works. Mary herself tells us exactly that in her beautiful song, the Magnificat. She tells us that God lifts up the lowly and sends the rich and powerful away. ²

And so it is with us, my brothers and sisters. God wants to work through each one of us, through our ordinary lives.  

Elizabeth tells Mary today in the Gospel: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

So faith is the key. Faith opens our eyes to see that God’s plan — that it can be fulfilled in the quiet movements of our lives.

So obviously the question for each one of us is: what is God asking of us? Nothing more than what he asked of Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah. He is asking us to believe in his Word, he is asking us to put our trust in him. To do his will, not our will.

And God’s will is our holiness, our salvation. That is what he wants for us. And not only for us, but for everyone, obviously.

And his will is shared through our own little “visitations,” through little acts of love, little acts of serving others. Just as Mary went to serve her cousin, Elizabeth. So it is a matter of being faithful to God in our simple, daily life. In these little moments the awareness of Jesus is born in the hearts of those we serve. Just with little things that we can do every day of love and service to the people that are especially close to us.

And the Gospel again and again recommends to us a life of simplicity.

When we think about Mary’s life, it was all about this simplicity of life. She knows what matters, and what matters is Jesus and his love. The realities of her life that you and I know about —the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, and the rest of her life — these were not noticed by anybody at the time. It was not until they were written down in the Gospels.  

And again, my dear brothers and sisters, this is a beautiful lesson for us. God wants us to strive for holiness in our daily life. God is asking us to be faithful to his will in daily, ordinary lives — yes with the people that we are with, our families and our friends. And in that way we can really be, as Pope Francis calls us, missionary disciples.

So the good that we do is seen only by God and the small circle of people that we live and work with. That is what matters. Jesus and doing his will in our daily lives.

So today, let us ask God today for that humility, for that faith that Mary had. As we continue to celebrate our Jubilee Year, let us dedicate ourselves today to continue the work of the great missionaries and indigenous peoples who brought Jesus to this country so many years ago, in the ordinary way in which they were living at that time.

And as we prepare for Christmas, as we continue in this time of waiting, let us stay close to Mary our Blessed Mother. Let us ask her to bring Jesus into our lives again in a new way, and let us ask her to awaken the awareness of him in every human heart.

1.  Readings: Mic. 5:1–4; Ps. 80:2–3, 15–16, 18–19; Heb. 10:5–10; Luke 1:39–45.