December 24, 2023
Mary shows us the most effective path for helping our world. And it is available to you. What is this path?
Key Points
- David proposes something good. How does the Lord respond?
- How does Mary respond to the Lord?
- What are the three degrees of our response to God?
- What are the results?
- What is this true superpower that is open to all of us?
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
“Behold, I am the handmade of the Lord. Let it be done to me, according to your word.” I think this is the gospel that is read most often. And the liturgy because it’s so important, the whole history of humanity hinges on Mary’s response. And there’s a secret here, a secret truly of infinite power. And that is available to anyone who is willing to open their hearts to it. No matter what situation you’re in, if you want to, you can avail yourself of the secret. And especially for these critical, difficult times that we’re living in our country and humanity and the Church. This is especially important. So the readings present us two very different situations that we’re in. The first one we have King David. King David is such an extraordinary person, strong, handsome, courageous, had been a great warrior, and then a general and now King, the glorious King of Israel, very successful. Besides, he’s also gifted, gifted as a musician, as a poet, and also a man of deep faith. And so one of the extraordinary personalities in history. And so the gospel, I mean that the first reading says, “when King David was settled in his palace, and the Lord had given him rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan the prophet, Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the Lord dwells in a tent.” So he wants to do something very good, right? That’s a good thing. He wants to do a good intention. And so he wants to fix this. He, he wants to build something nice and great for the Lord. And Nathan answered the king.”Go do whatever you have in mind for the Lord is with you.” It sounds great to Nathan to – Nathan’s a prophet. But this sounds I mean, who could object right to that idea? Build a big, beautiful temple for the Lord. So Nathan doesn’t even think it’s necessary to ask the Lord just that’s a great idea. No question. But that night, it says, “The Lord spoke to Nathan.” And the Lord said, That’s a great idea what David had, right? That’s not what it said. But he said, he said, “No, go tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord.” So he asked a question, “should you build me a house to dwell in?” So he’s asking a question, are you going to build me a house? And then before answering, He helps him understand the importance of that question. He says, “It was I who took you from the pasture, and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people, Israel.” That is, I did that, God did that. “I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed your enemies before you.’ So that’s the I was the one who is destroying your enemies. If God had not been there, it wouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t just David’s work for God. It was God himself. That’s what God is saying. God Himself was there in those battles, destroying his enemies. “And I will make you famous, like the great ones of the earth.” Who will make him famous. God says, “I will fix a place for my people Israel.” Notice he doesn’t say you, he says, I, “I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.” Because I don’t know what’s going through David’s mind. But when the Lord gives you a talent, and when the Lord gives you success, which I wouldn’t know much about, but if a person during the Lord has given success, I mean, because even when the Lord gives a little talent, a little success, how quickly does that, you know, does that fill our heads and our head begins to swell. And so David has had tremendous success. So the Lord needs to tell him, I was there. And another thing that’s very important there is because it might not have always been evident to David. Sometimes the Lord does things for us. But the Lord is often very subtle. So we don’t realize that it’s Him who’s doing it. And we might think that was I who did it. So he has to tell David, I did this for you. I will give you rest from your enemies. The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. You know how many great human leaders or conquerors warriors have tried to build a great kingdom. Like say, Alexander the Great, Alexander the Great, extraordinary success. And he was still a young man, I forget how old he was, but young like, think less than 30 of the extraordinary success. And then he dies very quickly. And then his kingdom begins to be divided. It doesn’t last that long. And Napoleon had extraordinary success. And it doesn’t last even decades, falls apart. And terrible, Napoleon dies. And acts I mean, so many examples like that Hitler wanting to build the, the right that would last 1000 years, and it didn’t even last 10 years. So, so many examples of human people who want to build this great, something that will really last and it falls apart right away. But the Lord says, “The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you, and when your time comes and your rest with your ancestors.” So when you leave this world, because that’s going to happen to you, too, David, he’s telling David, and then what can you do after you leave this world? Right? What can you do? You can’t then attend to somebody; you can’t do anything. And so and that’s one of the problems with all these great leaders is, they die eventually. And then, like Alexander the Great, he died very young, and then his kingdom begin to be divided. And so at that point, when he’ll be dead, according to this life, and so no longer able to act here humanly. So that’s a moment in which he needs, that’s a clear moment in which he needs to abandon himself to God, because there’s nothing else that he can do here. And what is the Lord says, “After you go to rest with your ancestors, I will raise up an heir for you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm,” not you will make his kingdom firm, I will make his kingdom firm, “I will be a Father to him, and he shall be a son to Me, your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before Me,” endure forever, your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me. So that’s again, something that no human power can do. All human kingdoms just last for a time, sometimes not very long at all. “But your throne shall stand firm forever.” So God is making this extraordinary promise. But it won’t be because of David’s power, or David’s talents. He needs to recognize that it’s God Himself is there and the Lord made that very clear, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this. I have done this, I’ve done this, I’ve done this, and I will do is make it very clear that it’s Him and not David. So David has to recognize that his gifts, his talents are from the Lord. That’s the Lord. Of course, David had to cooperate. And David did cooperate. And so that’s good. But the root of his success comes from his trust in the Lord more than his own efforts. So that’s one example. And then we have a very different example, in this gospel, a very different situation. This is with a young woman, Mary. So she’s a woman in a society which is dominated by men. She’s an orphan, she’s still very young, she’s probably, we don’t know exactly, probably 15, 16, something like that. So very young, an orphan, not from a wealthy or powerful family, a very distinct, a very unimportant and vulnerable person, in an insignificant town and an insignificant province of the Roman Empire. And notice what Mary says, as the angel at response to this message from the Lord through the angel, she says, “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” Now, notice what Mary does not say. She doesn’t say, Oh, it’s good that there’s the messenger for work because I have some great things I’m going to do for the Lord. And I want you to tell the Lord all these beautiful ideas I have, and all these great things I’m going to do. She doesn’t say that right? She doesn’t even say, I will obey. But that’s part of it. But that’s not what she says. What she says, is “be it done to me.” She says, She’s the handmaid of the Lord so disposed to do whatever He’s asking. But she says, “be it done to me.” So That’s the famous Fiat, Fiat in Latin, that’d be done to me. So she’s surrendering herself to the Lord’s action. So this, this shows us, kind of, three degrees of her working for the Lord. So one is the first degree is for those who want to do good for the Lord. They have their good things that they want to do for the Lord. So that’s good. But it’s very imperfect because it’s still my ideas. I decide what I want to do for God, and I do it. It’s kind of like me telling the Lord says, they take an example, it’s like me telling the Lord, say, I’m going to, Lord, I’m going to drive to this place for you. And you’ll understand it with the other examples. So that’s the case of a lot of Christians, this is the good things I’m going to do for the Lord. And that’s already better than not doing good things. But there’s a second degree, which are those who choose to obey God. I choose to do God’s will, I’m going to ask the Lord, I’m going to seek what the Lord wants me to do. And I’ll do that. So that’s much better because that’s seeking to obey the Lord. It’s like saying, Lord, you tell me where you want me to drive. You tell me and I’ll go wherever you tell me to go. That’s much better. That’s letting Him choose where we should go. But then there’s a third, a third degree, which is even better, which is what we see in our Blessed Mother here. And it’s safe to take that same example. It’s like not asking the Lord, Lord, do you sit there in the passenger seat, or you sit behind, and you tell me where you want me to drive you. It’s like saying, Lord, you drive, you drive, and I’ll be, I’ll be your passenger, go where you want me to go. That is it’s abandoning ourselves to Him. It’s trusting Him and letting Him act. You see the difference between seeking to obey the Lord, which is good, but even better, to accept to let the Lord do what He wants in our lives. So the emphasis there is not on what I do. It’s what He does. And I see a lot of you looking at me with bigger eyes. Well, that’s, that’s a crazy idea. So, but this is, Mary’s example is not an example of weakness, but of inner strength, of great strength, not of stupidity, but of wisdom. Not following human ideas but wanting to be as open as possible to God’s own light. It’s not an act of fear, but an act of great courage. For this, realize this is a young girl, all alone. She can’t consult anybody; she has to make this decision herself. Israel had the Sanhedrin, that the Council of the 70 elders, who were supposed to make the important decisions and guide Israel, God didn’t appear to the Sanhedrin, God could have appeared in the Sanhedrin, He could have appeared in the midst of this great council of all these elders, who are very learned and so forth, and could have told them, This is what I want to do. But He didn’t do that. He didn’t appear at all to Sanhedrin. He appeared, it didn’t say to the Sanhedrin, look, I have a very big thing I want to do for Israel and for all humanity. And so you’re the great counsel. So I’m going to ask you to cooperate. He didn’t do that. He didn’t tell them at all. I mean, he prophesied if they had read the prophecies, but he appeared to one young girl. And she couldn’t even, again, she was alone. And he asked her. Why did God do that? Why didn’t God appear to this all the council of elders? Why did He make this most momentous of decisions depend on one young woman? And so and she has the courage by herself, without any support, to respond to Him. And so Mary shows how independent she is. She’s completely dependent on God, and that makes her so independent of human distortions and ideas. So this shows the extreme strength and courage and independence of our Blessed Mother, which she will show she’s very humble, but very strong and she will show throughout her life, and even to Calvary, when everyone, the council, everyone was turning against Jesus, and how strong she was to be faithful to God. And so what happens when a person; because this is the first time in history in which a person has ever opened their life and abandon their life surrendered their life, to that degree completely. So what’s going to happen when a person does that? When they surrendered themselves completely to God, what we see happening is not God, taking advantage of Mary, like, that’s always our fear, right? That if I surrendered to God, who knows what He’s going to do in my life, right? So you got to be careful, because who knows if we give God that opportunity, He has all sorts of crazy ideas, and what’s He going to do? So what happens when she does that? What happens when Mary abandons herself to God is that God abandoned Himself to her. So it’s, it’s already takes a lot of courage for us little creatures to abandon ourselves, even though we know that in the hands of God, even though we know He is good and powerful, but still, that’s frightening. But it’s so different when it’s God Himself, abandons Himself to a little creature, and becomes this tiny, tiny, you know, something, none of us chose to become a little embryo, right? That’d be very frightening, right? None of us had a choice, none of us are asked about it. But that’d be very frightening, to become a tiny little embryo we know today, you know, there’s all sorts of terrible abortions and, and all sorts of terrible ways that a lot of human embryos are treated. Because it’s such a vulnerable state. And yet, God Himself chooses to become that tiny, tiny, little new human being our Lord Himself. So He’s entrusting Himself completely to her, becoming her little child. And so Mary, by doing this is doing bring about the greatest growth possible for the world. Something that no one else would have been able to achieve. It’s something that she herself never could have achieved, no matter how hard she would have worked or how much she would have studied, or how many people she could have gotten to help. None of that could have achieved this. But by accepting completely God’s will, she opened herself to this infinite saving power of God, because she let God act. So notice what Mary says, Mary doesn’t say, That’s a great idea. I’m going to do what you’re telling me. She’s not saying, but she’s going to do. She’s saying, Let it be done to me. So she’s accepting to open herself completely to the power of God, it’s good to work for the Lord. But what Mary’s doing is even more powerful, to let the Lord work in and through her, be it done to me. You know our little mission that the special grace or charism that the Lord has led us to is faith, so that we can act? No. So that’s already good faith that we can act that that’s already good. It’s already good to act guided by faith. But what the Lord has led us to is faith so that God can act. Because what we can do by ourselves is very limited. But what God can do, is without limits, what does Jesus say, what does the angel say? He says, nothing for God, nothing is impossible. And so Mary is giving us this lesson. This is something that the Lord is trying to teach a little mission, faith and abandonment to God, so that God can act. And especially as I say, in this critical time, for the Church and for humanity more than ever, we need a faith that leads to abandonment, to surrender to God, so that He can act. So abandonment, I talked about this, this power, this is abandonment, this abandonment to God is this true superpower, truly a superpower, more than a superpower, a divine power, but which is accessible to each one of us. And even especially if we feel weak and limited and without a lot of talents, that’s not a hindrance to abandonment, in fact those that can actually make me more disposed, more humble and more disposed to abandon myself to God so that He can act. So our very weaknesses, as Jesus said, as to St. Paul, a saint and then St. Paul then says, “when I am weak, it is then that I am strong,” because he realized that it’s my weakness, which opens me to the power of God’s action. So even in desperate situations, and especially in desperate situations, we can, we can act with this grace of surrendering ourselves to the Lord. So it’s not an easy thing to do. But any progress we make is very helpful. So in conclusion, in this Holy Eucharist, that we’re celebrating right now, what happens in the Holy Eucharist, the Lord comes and wants to surrender Himself to us, coming to us in this very little host, coming and wanting to offer Himself to us, abandon Himself to us. You know, Jesus, who was surrendered to men, even men who hated him, at the cross, and in Holy Communion, Jesus wants to come confide Himself to those who love Him and trust in Him. And so as He does that, in Holy Communion, it’s our opportunity with our Blessed Mother, to respond to His act of trust, and surrendering Himself to us, by ourselves, and trust in ourselves with her, surrendering ourselves, abandoning ourselves to Him. So that we can also say, Behold, the servant of the Lord, be it done to me, according to your word. Amen.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 1:26-38
2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16