4^th Sunday of Advent  B.  December 18, 2011.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 7:30.  2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a-16.  Romans 16:25-27.  Luke 1:26-38.

Do any of us really matter?  Does what we do have any chance of making the world a better place?  Alone we are like a grain of sand being tossed around in the deep, mysterious and unpredictable ocean of life. 

Mary was a teenager in a world that didn’t expect great things from women.  She was a poor woman living in an unimportant country enslaved by the Roman Empire.  She lived in a no place town called Nazareth.  Of all the people in the world to be ignored and forgotten Mary was close to the top of the list.  She was nobody from nowhere.  Mary knew who she was.  When the angel appeared to her she was afraid.  Yet Mary took the visit of the angel very seriously.  The angel told her that she was to be the mother of the long awaited Messiah.  She didn’t say “why me?” or “not me” or “why don’t you look for someone more important, more educated, or more powerful?” Mary simply said “Yes.” “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.  Be it done onto me according to your word.”   The whole thing was a mystery to her at the beginning and perhaps throughout much of her life.  Mary would later say, “God has looked upon me in my nothingness.”  The yes of this teenage woman changed the history of the human race.  Her yes welcomed God into her womb as a member of the human race.  No matter how fierce the struggle is, the victory will surely be ours in and because through Mary’s yes God is with us and God is truly one of us. Even those who do not believe in the divinity of Jesus can see that Mary gave birth to the greatest spiritual revolution in the history of the human race.  Who would have believed that the yes of a poor girl from Nazareth could be that powerful and that important?

Mary’s yes took much longer than a brief moment. It was the task of a lifetime.  Mary had to explain to Joseph and her family how she became an unwed mother.  Perhaps there was gossip in the community before Joseph took her into his home.  She had to say yes to the birth of her baby in a stable, sharing the fate of the poor as she bedded down with the animals.  Her yes demanded that she stand at the foot of the Cross as the son that she loved so dearly was mocked and executed.  Mary said yes to growing old in the midst of the persecuted church of the first disciples – she grew old as a widow and without the physical presence of her son.  Who would have ever thought that a poor woman from no place would have so much courage and strength?

Mary teaches us that “yes” is an incredibly powerful word when the person we say yes to is God.  We are a Church of people who have the courage to say “yes” to God.  Most of our great saints are people who were nobody until they heard the voice of God calling out to them in the night.  Pope John Paul II was a factory worker in Communist Poland who studied for the priesthood in secret because of the persecution of the Church in Poland.  When he was elected Pope, I was in class teaching at the seminary.  The TV announcement said that the new pope came from Cracow.  The seminarians all said together “Cracow.”  Who ever heard of a pope from Cracow? Who ever heard of a Polish pope?   This little known bishop from Poland was one of the major factors in the fall of Russian Communism.  In large part the wisdom of Pope John Paul working behind the scenes with President Regan helped this to happen without a war – and what an awful war there could have been.  God does great things through those who say yes to him.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a born in a persecuted Catholic community in Communist Albania.  At the age of eighteen she left Albania to become a Sister of Loreto in Ireland.  Later she founded the Missionaries of Charity and became a world renowned servant of the poorest of the poor in India and throughout the world.  Who would have thought that Communist Albania would be the birthplace of one of the best known servants of the poor?  God does great things though those who say yes to him.

Both Pope John Paul and Mother Teresa had a great devotion to Mary and her powerful “yes” to God.  They imitated that yes in their own lives.  What about you and me?  Do we believe that our “yes” to God really matters?   Do we believe that we are the faith-filled people and the good leaders that the Church, the world and our country need today?  Do we believe that saying “yes” to God is the most powerful thing we can do with our lives and for the world today?   How is the Lord asking you to say “yes” this Advent?

(Sing with the people Gather 686)

(me)

I, the Lord of sea and sky
I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save.

I who made the stars and night
I will make the darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them
Whom shall I send?
(all)
Here I am Lord
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go Lord
If you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

For Mary and all who imitate her in saying “yes” to the Lord we give God thanks and praise.