Elizabeth says to Mary, her cousin, “Blessed are you among women”, words that we often repeat in the prayer “The Hail Mary”.  Why did Elizabeth say that?  To find out why we just need to go back a little earlier in that same first chapter of Luke’s Gospel where the Angel Gabriel stands before Mary and asks her consent to be the mother of the savior.  Let us be clear about this, Mary was not pre-programmed.  She could without sin have said, “You know, I’m really not worthy please go and ask somebody else.”  And make no mistake about it if she had said that then God’s plan would have been put on hold.  Mary debated, she hesitated.  There is an old Christian tradition which says that the Angel Gabriel was actually trembling because he had no idea what answer Mary would give.  And then she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it done unto me according to thy word” and the machinery of our salvation was set in motion.

That tells us three things – something about Mary, something about how God works, and something about ourselves. 

Mary --  we think that she was probably a girl in her late teenage years in an obscure village in Palestine.  Sometimes I think that we pile so many titles upon her that we make her too unlike ourselves.  But it is clear from those first chapters of Luke’s Gospel that she reacted to the Angel exactly as you and I would react, with confusion, uncertainty and doubt.  More than once it says she pondered what this might mean.  She pondered what on earth is going on.  But was one the day both her powerful faith and hope because she knew, she absolutely knew that God was to be trusted.  As Elizabeth said in that Gospel, “Blessed are you because you took God as his Word.”  Mary is someone that we can turn to in our times of confusion, uncertainty and doubt because from her we can gain reassurance that God is to be trusted.

Next it tells us something about how God works.  Just as God made the plan of salvation depend upon Mary saying yes, saying fiat, as we say, be it done unto me according to thy word.  That is called her fiat.  Just as God depended on Mary saying yes, so God has entrusted the world into our hands.  God has taken the globe as it were and put it in our hands, our slippery, frail, fragile hands.  St. Theresa of Avila said “Christ has no body now but yours.  No hands, no feet, no eyes but yours.  Yours is the hand with which God chooses to shape the world.”  And you know some thing, we deeply resent God for that.  Very often we think God, we wish you would do things differently.  We wish you would step in more often.  We wish you would intervene dramatically in human affairs.  We wish you would stop all wars.  We wish you would end famine.  We wish you would end global warming.  We wish you would make this a world where children no longer have to die.  And God says to us, “that’s your job!”  In history God only rarely makes miraculous visitations.  Usually he leaves it up to us to shape his world.  It’s very well put in a famous book called “Why Bad Things Happen To Good People” by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner.  And here is what he says:

“We cannot merely pray to you, Oh God, to end starvation for you have already given us the resources with which to feed the entire world if we would only use them wisely. 

We cannot merely pray to you, Oh God, to end prejudice for you have already given to us eyes to see the good in all people. 

We cannot merely pray to you, Oh God, to end despair for you have already given us the power to clear away slums and to give hope. 

We cannot merely pray to you, Oh God, to end disease for you have already given us great minds with which to search out cures and healing if we would only use them constructively.”

So for example in my case, with my current medical condition, God has put me into the hands of Dr. Armstrong, Dr. Calin, Dr. Kamlott and others; and into the hands of wonderfully caring nurses.  And for me they are the hand of God and I am so grateful and thankful to them, but I have to say “God, if you were to make one of your rare visitations in my case, if you were to intervene dramatically in my case, Lord all I can say is be my guest.”  (Laughter)

Lastly, it tells us something about ourselves.  We are the ones that God depends upon to make the world a better place to make a difference.  If we don’t do it it’s not going to be done.  Ours are the hands, ours are the feet, and ours are the eyes.  There was once a young girl she was looking out the window of her house at the world going by and she saw a man who was very badly crippled by war.  She saw a family begging for food because they were desperately poor.  She saw a man going by in his wheelchair who seemed to be dying of AIDS and angrily she cried out to God and she said, “God, why don’t you do something?”  And she heard a very gentle voice coming from heaven saying, “My child, I did something, I made you.”  I did something, I made you.  Two thousand years ago a young Palestinian teenage girl heard a similar voice.  She found the strength of faith to say, “Yes.”  And because of her, her cousin Elizabeth had good reason to say, “You are blessed among all women” because that young girl made such a difference that our world would never be the same again.  So let us pause for a few moments of silence in the presence of the mystery.

 

 

 

 

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