HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 03 02 – Yr II

Living the Mystery 

(Judges 13:2-25; Ps 71; Lk 1:5-25)

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Perhaps you have heard the saying, “Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.”

Today, as we approach the end of the Advent season, we are invited to live that mystery with humble faith, trust and prayer.

The readings today are wonderfully balanced. In both there is a desperate situation of barrenness, an inability to be fruitful and bear new life. Two couples are childless – Manoah and his unnamed wife, and Zechariah and Elizabeth.

There are also two annunciations, one to the wife of Manoah, and one to Zechariah. These are not just apparitions, but truly annunciations, with the angel visitor informing the recipients of the vision that they will have the joy of birthing a child, very similar to the annunciation to Mary.

In both cases, the child will be special, filled with the Holy Spirit, and both will have a mission to accomplish in the world – Samson to deliver the Israelites from their enemies, and John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus the Messiah.

As so often is the case, God is at work in mysterious unexpected ways, in situations of barrenness and human inability, and in darkness and silence. Manoah’s wife informs her husband of the angel’s message, and then of course, gestates that new life for the full nine months of pregnancy, in humble obscurity and quiet wonder. It is the same, although more pointedly so for Elizabeth, who we are told remained in seclusion for nine months, allowing the miracle of new life that took away her shame to sink in.

In all of this, God is at work in humble country people, in darkness, and in the silence of the womb. There is a lesson here for all of us who believe in Jesus and seek to follow him – humble faith that expresses itself in trust and contemplative prayer.

We are invited, within our busy and active lives, to carve out moments of stillness, of quiet, of listening to God’s word, of being attentive to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit within us, as a woman bearing a child within her womb would be totally attentive to that miracle of new life within her. The best way to do that, to participate in this mysterious working of God within us, is contemplative prayer, just being in the presence of God’s Word, believing and trusting that God’s spirit is doing within us, gestating within us, whatever it is that God wants to accomplish within us at that moment.

Lectio Divina is one of the best ways to do this: reading a passage of scripture, meditating on that passage, praying with that passage, and then just being present to that word, trusting that God’s spirit is at work within us. Franciscan Father Bob Mitchell once said that most people lead lives of much activity into which they try to insert moments of prayer. It should be just the opposite – we are called to lead prayerful lives into which we insert moments of activity.

The Eucharist is itself a wonderful mystery that takes place invisibly and humbly. We are nourished by God’s word, and simple gifts of bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, intended to forgive us and heal us.

So, remember, life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. Let us continue to live that mystery with humble faith and contemplative prayer.