Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent.
May it be done to me according to your word.
December 20, 2020
What would your life be like if you were as attentive to your Bible and Rosary as you are to your cell phone? What if your greatest desire were to listen to the voice of the Lord at every moment of the day? This is how the Virgin Mary lived. She was a woman of prayer.
Today’s Gospel passage recounts when God spoke to her through the angel Gabriel, how she listened and was open to God’s plan. Still, even though free of all sin by God’s grace, Mary’s prayer had its struggles. As Luke tells us “…she was greatly troubled at what was said…” She pondered the angel’s greeting but could not fully understand what it meant. So, she continued to listen. And the angel said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” Even when Mary prayed, she needed to hear the words, “Be not afraid;” for opening oneself to God in prayer does not automatically remove questions and troubling feelings. So, the angel went on to explain God’s plan for her,
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and of His Kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary believed the angel’s message without doubt, but she did not understand how it would come about; so, as is appropriate when seeking God’s will, she asked, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” At once, the angel answered her, saying, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God… for nothing will be impossible for God.” At that point, with faith and filial trust, Mary gave her consent to God’s plan, and not only her life was changed forever, but so was history and the lives of every human person. “Behold,” she said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
At those words of Mary, the Word of God became flesh. So great is this mystery of love that human words fall short in explaining it. The English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins described it this way. “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” And during every Mass, the Incarnation of God’s word is recalled when a drop of water is mixed with the wine in the chalice as the priest or deacon says, “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”
All human history was changed when Mary’s humanity was joined with the divinity of Jesus, when the Word of God was made flesh in her womb. Our Redemption began when Mary listened to God in prayer and gave her consent to His holy will.
Dear sons and daughters in Christ, Mary is a great model of faith and prayer for each of us. The Catechism says of Mary’s faith (#494), “Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son…”
The Catechism also says (#2671),
“In the faith of His humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance He had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made ‘full of grace’ responds by offering her whole being… ‘Fiat’: this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God’s, because He is wholly ours.”
Do you ever treat your cell phone like you couldn’t live without it? Do you know that, without daily prayer, without listening for the voice of the Lord throughout the day, it’s impossible to live as beloved sons and daughters of God, as we have the honor of being?
When you travel, what do you consider more important — your smart phone or your prayer? In case of an emergency, which matters most to you –a connection with the Internet or the presence of the living God?
The Virgin Mary built her life on the Word of God. Nothing was more important. That’s why she told the Lord: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” That’s why the Word became flesh in her. Listening for the voice of the Lord at all times allowed Mary to remain faithful to God even when noise and chaos surrounded her, even at the foot of the Cross.
God’s word is the most powerful force in all creation. In fact, it is the source and foundation of all that exists. St. Paul wrote from prison that there is no way to chain the word of God. The messenger of God’s word can be put in chains and even put to death, but the word of God cannot be chained.
The Prophet Isaiah said God’s word is more powerful than a blizzard or a storm (Is 55:10f),
“For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful…so shall my word be…It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
By His Word, the heavens were made: the moon, the sun and the stars. God spoke and they came into being. And by the word of God, the New Creation, the Redemption of the world came about. It is the Lord who renews the face of the earth. Jesus says, “Behold, I make all things new.”
This is true every time that angels deliver God’s word, and it is received in faith; it is still true in the age of the Internet.
Our human words also share in this life-giving power if they flow from God’s word. But if our words are of human origin only, if they come from human pride and not from faith, they build only a tower of Babel, a dwelling of selfishness and greed.
Mary teaches us how to make God’s word fruitful in our own lives: by humility and obedience, by saying with St. Paul (Phil 4:13), “In God who is my source of strength, I have strength for all.”
