December 20, 2009 Cycle C
Micah 5:1-4 Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45
Anna is the mother of a son who has been diagnosed HIV positive. When her Church decided to reach out to Samaritan House, an Aids shelter, Anna joined the effort. Her group tried 3 times to hold services at the shelter, but the resident’s wanted nothing to do with the “bible beaters.” After that rejection, Anna stopped to imagine herself terminally ill, estranged, and ostracized, and she tried to envision what any two people in America would likely have in common. Her answer: chocolate chip cookies.
So Anna baked up a big batch of chocolate chip cookies and drove back to Samaritan House. She walked in and handed cookies to every person she saw. Now, some were suspicious, wondering what the gimmick was –but most accepted the cookies. The cookies conveyed the message she wanted to send: “If I give you a cookie it can mean that we have something in common. If it is homemade and straight from the oven, it says I care. If I give it to you straightforwardly and softly, with a smile, but a few words, it conveys that I have no hidden agenda.”
For six weeks Anna carried on her cookie ministry. Finally someone asked, “Why are you doing this?” The best answer she could give was “Because God loves you.”
Anna is now welcomed by every resident of Samaritan House as the “Cookie Lady.” To many of the residents she has become a friend in the face of the compassionate Jesus.
Anna struggled to find her voice at Samaritan House. Putting aside her own attitudes and needs she looked at the world through the eyes of the residents she sought to serve. It was in that serving that Anna found her voice in her skill as a cookie baker.
In today’s Gospel we find Mary traveling to be with her cousin Elizabeth. Luke never tells us why she goes, but we can guess: Mary wants to be with her beloved cousin in the last months of what must have been a very difficult pregnancy. But she also went to seek the elder Elizabeth’s counsel and support during her own struggle to understand what is happening. In Mary and Elizabeth’s visit, and in our own similar visitations, the Spirit of God is present in the healing, the comfort, and the support we can extend to one another in such moments. My opening story of the mother, Anna, showed how she could be of service in that simple gesture of a “chocolate chip cookie!”
By virtue of our own Baptisms we are all called to be voices of truth and integrity in our homes, in our schools, in our workplaces. Advent’s invitation is to embrace the joy and fulfillment that only can be found beyond ourselves and in finding God in others. It is to embrace life as a blessed time to be lived in the search for the holy and sacred in our midst. And also embrace the understanding that suffering and pain, and hard work, are the only paths to building a life worth living. Further embrace the never disappointing hope that is found only in the things of God: And that God is present to us and calling us to Him regardless of fears, doubts and poor sense of self-esteem.
Today we pray that we experience the joy, hope and excitement of Mary and Elizabeth in their visitation within our own lives and families, in every season of every year.
Amen. Amen. Msgr. Tom, Pastor, Christ the King