NB. I will be the principal celebrant at tomorrow's NDS Mass. Right now I'm planning on preaching w/o a text. . .who knows, I may chicken out in the morning. Here's a OLG homily from 2011.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA
Just last week—on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception—we heard
the archangel Gabriel declare to Mary, “Hail, full of grace! Blessed are
you among women for you have found favor with God.” Tonight we read
about Mary's visit to her elderly cousin, Elizabeth, a woman who's been
barren her whole life and is now pregnant with John the Baptist. When
Mary greets her cousin, John leaps with joy in his mother's womb. And
Elizabeth, in a fit of wonder and faith confirms the angel's greeting to
Mary, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb. . .Blessed are you [Mary] who believed that what was spoken
to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Do you, like Mary, believe that
what is spoken to you by the Lord will be fulfilled? And if you believe,
do you act in the world as one who has been spoken to by God?
Elizabeth proclaims Mary “blessed” b/c she—Mary—believed what was spoken
to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. And b/c she believes His word,
she submits her will to the will of God and now carries in her womb the
Word made flesh. For centuries, almost since the very beginning, the
Church has held our Blessed Mother up as the model of Christian service,
the model of what it means to say Yes to the Father's invitation to
allow His Word to take root in the human soul. If Mary is the model of
the faithful Church; and the Church is the Body of Christ; and we are
all members of that Body, then it follows that Mary's fiat—let it be
done to me according to His word—is also our response to the Father's
invitation to welcome and allow His Word to take root in each one of us.
If we hear this invitation and raise our own fiat, then Elizabeth's
praise of Mary is also her praise for us: “Blessed are those who believe
that what is spoken to them by the Lord will be fulfilled.” Likewise,
Mary's response to Elizabeth's praise is our response as well, “My soul
proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my
savior.”
Does your soul proclaim the Lord's greatness? Does your spirit rejoice
in your Savior? We can all understand why Mary would sing out like
this. She's been visited by an archangel. She's been given the Son of
God as her child. She's been favored above all women and called blessed.
She's got every reason to say that her soul proclaims God's greatness
and that her spirit rejoices in her Savior. Why would any of us repeat
her proclamation? We've not been visited by an angel or given birth to
the Word made flesh or been called blessed and most favored. Oh, but we
have. Not in the same way that Mary was, but we have most certainly been
given the Word made flesh and blood in the sacrament. And we've heard
His Word spoken many, many times at Mass. The question is: do we believe
that His Word will be fulfilled? Do we act in the world in a way that
demonstrates our belief? If we do, then our souls do proclaim the
greatness of God and our spirits do rejoice in our Savior. If you don't,
if you don't believe and act on His Word, then there is a way to get
right with God. Confession, repentance, and penance: receiving in the
sacrament of confession the forgiveness won for us by the Cross and
Empty Tomb.
Sin is the principal means used by the Enemy to prevent us from giving
God his dutiful worship and from carrying out our vow to be Christs in
the world. Plain and simple. Sin. Disobedience. The Enemy tempts, and we
fall. But falling is never a reason to stay fallen. Get back up and
receive all that Christ died to freely give you. God loves you and wants
you to participate in His divine life. But He will not coerce you; He
will not dominate or intimidate us into living with Him. He invites,
seduces, exhorts, all but pleads. Confess, repent, and do penance so
that you may follow Mary into blessedness.
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