Homily for December 20, 2009
Fourth Sunday in Advent
Mi 5: 1-4a
Ps 80: 2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Hebrews 10: 5-10
Lk 1: 39-45
Shhh! Did you hear? She’s pregnant!
Shhh! Does anyone know?
Shh! What shame she has brought on her family!
Shhh! Who is the father?
Shh! She should be sent away to have that baby of hers!
Shh! Does she know what danger she is in? She could be stoned!
Shh! That poor child!
Tradition has it that Mary was raised in the temple till the age of
about twelve. After that, the temple was forbidden to her. But she still
loved God and the house of God. She wanted to remain a virgin and
dedicate her life to God.
Now, here she was, only 14, unmarried, scared, confused and
thrilled at the same time, wanting to tell everyone that she was carrying
the child of God but afraid for her life and for that of her child. It
would be impossible for her to remain in Nazareth. She had to find a
way to protect Jesus.
Elizabeth! A distant relative on her mothers side, that’s where she
would go! So, Mary fled to where she felt safe. She fled to where she
could be useful. She fled to where she could be understood!
In Elizabeth’s home, she could pour out her heart. Here, she
would reveal her love of God. Elizabeth would understand. Of course,
Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah, would recognize the miracle that
had happened. How could she not recognize the presence of God within
Mary?
Midrash, maybe, a little story telling to help us understand what
might have happened. The fact is that Mary lived in an occupied and
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colonized country, a country with a long history of invasion and exile.
There must have been soldiers everywhere. Of course the people of
Nazareth would be suspicious of any pregnancy outside of the law,
especially if the father was in doubt. An outsider’s child would threaten
their religious and cultural identity. Mary was not safe.
Elizabeth’s joy upon seeing Mary and her recognition that Mary
was carrying the Savior must have been quite reassuring to the young
girl. Elizabeth’s affirmation and support of Mary in the subsequent
months must have given Mary the ability to continue the trust that God
would stand by her. With that knowledge, Mary became strong enough
to claim that which God was calling her to be, the mother of the boy
child, Jesus, but also a prophet in her own right.
Elizabeth must have recognized the call that Mary received the
traditional call of a prophet. God calls, the prophet objects, I’m too
young said Jeremiah, I can’t speak said Moses, I don’t know a man said
Mary. The acceptance by Mary to bear the incarnate God is the
acceptance of a prophet. “Let it be with me according to your word”,
she said. This was not a passive or submissive acceptance. Within those
words, lie the risk and courage of a prophet in the face of death.
Elizabeth must have been astonished that that kind of courage could be
present in one so young.
“God will stand by Mary, and so will I”, Elizabeth must have
thought. Elizabeth gave Mary the strength to claim her role and to
recognize the injustices all around her. Because Elizabeth would stand
by Mary, Mary could call herself the servant of God, just as the
prophets of old were called. Because Elizabeth would stand by Mary,
Mary would gain her voice and proclaim her song of liberation, the
Magnificat.
“My soul proclaims your greatness, O God, and my spirit rejoices
in you my Savior”, the beginning words of liberation that you just heard
in today’s Gospel reading.
The remaining words of Mary’s song, talk of transforming the
social order and turning the status quo upside down. In her words, are
all of the expressions of a prophet, the criticism of a culture, a call for
justice for the disempowered, the call for mercy for God’s people and
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the recognition of a free God who is not bound by the dictates of a
dominant culture.
We do not know how Mary lived out her prophetic call. Scripture
is silent on this. But we can reflect on her work as nurturing, caring,
forming, molding and educating her son, Jesus. Maybe, in order to raise
Jesus to be “the ruler who will be peace to the people”, as Micah said,
her work was to instill a vision of an alternative consciousness within
Jesus.
It is clear that Mary was an important influence in the formation
of the young Jesus. Throughout his childhood, and probably due to
Mary, Jesus learned that access to God is not limited by the restrictions
of religious institutions, by poverty or by gender. Through her
prophetic ministry, Jesus came to know God as radically loving and
radically inclusive. His future ministry could probably have been
described as revolutionary, non-violent, love. Who else would God have
chosen to raise Jesus but a prophet? Who else would be chosen to form
Jesus’ prophetic ministry but a prophet?
If there has been a group in the 20th and now in the 21 century
whose members are called by God to transform the social order by
turning the status quo upside down, it has been the vowed religious
sisters in the United States. Their criticism of the culture, their call for
justice for the disempowered, their call for mercy for God’s people,
their recognition of a free God, not bound by the dictates of the
dominant culture or dominant religion has led them to this moment.
Their period of interior work, as Mary’s was with Elizabeth, came
after Vatican II. They were told to renew themselves, to go back to the
charism of their founders and reinvasion their congregations. During
that period of renewal, affirmation and growth, they did the work of
discerning, praying, exploring new ways of being, while truth was
gestating within them. God stood by them during that period.
And because of that, they gained the strength to stand by the
poor, to stand by the weak, to stand by the exploited and marginalized,
to stand by women called to ordained priesthood, to stand by the LGBT
community, to stand by their call to build a more just and peaceful
society, to stand by the mentally and physically broken, to stand by
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seekers in their search for God, to stand by those learning from the
sisters in Seminaries, to stand by all of us by writing theological and
prophetic books and articles. Since Vatican II, they have said, “God,
here I am. I have come to do your will”, as Paul says in the letter to the
Hebrews.
Their reward for living lives faithful to the Gospel, faithful to the
teachings of Jesus and faithful to the charism of their congregations is to
be investigated by the Vatican. Some speculate that it might be a land
grab for the property owned by the congregations. Some feel that it is
an attempt to regain control over the lives of women religious, control
lost after Vatican II. Some think that its purpose is to divert attention
from the systemic problems of the institution.
Vatican II took these women out of the isolating ghettos of
cloistered convents and put them to work in ecology, feminism and
justice. Some think that the Vatican is trying to put them back into
those isolating ghettos. Whatever the reason, the majority of the sisters
feel that this non-transparent investigation is intrusive, demeaning and
violent.
At first, there was fear. And that is part of the violence. And then
the sisters began to talk to one another, to stand by one another. Many
say that compliance to this investigation is not an option. Some say that
there has been almost universal resistance to it. And God continues to
stand by them. And Spirit is moving once again in their lives, just as she
did after Vatican II. And the sisters are listening.
The Vatican probably never imagined that this would make the
various congregations stronger, more confident and more unified, but
that is what has happened. The Vatican asked the congregations to pay
for the investigation. And the sisters said, enough! They will not pay for
their own oppression. They will not answer the very intrusive questions.
They will respond by setting an example of non-violent resistance. At
issue is the role that women religious are playing in the world today. But
at issue is also the role that women in general are playing in the world
today. These vowed women encouraged us to be all that we can be. And
now they are standing by all of us. They will not betray their
consciences and they will not betray us.
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They stood by their commitment to the guidance of Spirit after
Vatican II. They are standing by and for us now. And we must stand by
them. We are all in this together. Let us stand by each other now.
Church violence against women and other marginalized people has got
to stop! The labor is a little hard now. But we will see jubilation and
rejoicing when we birth, non-violently, a more just, compassionate
world and a more just and compassionate church.
In every generation, God raises up prophets to point the way to
the gospel vision of inclusion. This generation of religious women has
led the way toward challenging the top down concept of church
leadership, toward imagining a church that values the dignity and
equality of all of the people of God and toward re-imaging the holy
feminine for both men and women.
Like Mary of Nazareth, who dared to bring truth into the world,
the U.S. sisters are daring to birth truth into the church. As the
prophets of old have criticized and energized, the US sisters have
criticized, naming the oppression for what it is and have energized us,
the church, the people of God, to demand a more compassionate, more
just church, where all lives are important and all voices are heard,
where the conscience of the people is respected as an integral part of
recognizing the voice of God. And God will stand by this church as it
experiences long fought, but necessary growth as we all birth the kindom of God.
Shh! Have you heard? Sr. Louise Akers lost all that she has
worked for because she would not deny her conscience and stood by
women called to ordination.
Shh! Have you heard? Sr. Sandra Schneiders, has included the
divine feminine in her writing and has become the voice of wisdom and
reason in this investigation.
Shh! Have you heard? Sr. Janine Gramick founded New Ways
Ministry to serve the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and transgender
community and the Vatican tried to silence her.
Shh! Have you heard? Sr. Theresa Kane has done it again. She
rebuked the Vatican for its treatment of women in general and for its
treatment of the U.S. sisters in particular.
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Shh! Have you heard? Sr. Louise Lears has been banned from the
sacraments and ministry for her support of women’s ordination but she
speaks our truth in love.
Shh! Have you heard? Sr. Joan Chittister stood her ground at the
WOW conference and the Vatican backed down.
Shh! Have you heard, they will all continue to be the prophets for
our time!
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