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Deacon Tom's Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
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How quietly God makes himself known to Elizabeth in today’s gospel. John the herald, unable as yet to speak, can only leap in His mother’s womb to announce that God has become human.
The holy spirit helps Elizabeth interpret her baby’s message as she asks: “but who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Contrast this scene with God’s arrival on Mt. Sinai at the conferring of the Ten Commandments. God comes down on the mountain in fire amid peals of thunder and lightning.
The whole mountain trembled violently, and the people were terrified. So sacred has the mountain now become that any animal or person who touches it must be stoned to death.
And yet this is the same God who is in Mary’s womb – touching her, drawing sustenance from her. This is the same God who comes down quietly upon our altar today.
Throughout our lives, it’s our responsibility to balance our response to God’s awesomeness and His intimacy with us.
For centuries the Church has helped us keep this balance -- at one time, emphasizing God’s majesty by placing the altar half a mile away, up to forty steps with a communion rail separating us from the sanctuary.
These barriers have been removed. With our altar in our midst, the Church is currently emphasizing God’s intimacy with us.
On Saturday, as we kneel before the helpless infant in the feeding trough, remember the awe! See His greatness in His leaving behind the majestic appearance of God to become a human being.
Today, as we receive him in our hands in Holy Communion, remember the awe! See His greatness in leaving behind even the appearance of a human being to become our food.
What insight we get into our own worth. We ask: “but who am I that the God, who once came in a fire with thunder and lightning, who am I that the God who violently shook mt. Sinai, but who am I that my Lord should come to me.”
