God welcomes and embraces us – Luke 1:39-45

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C; St. Ann's Parish.

One of my favorite statues is by Fr. Tony Lauck, CSC, a member of my community who had died before I joined. From a distance it looks like a black cone, about 6 feet tall. As you get closer, though, you realize that the surface is not smooth, but imitates the folds you would see in cloth, and that there’s a subtle divide that means that two clothed figures are depicted. Emerging from those fold, you can see four hands, and if you look from the appropriate angles, you can see one face or the other of two women who are embracing, heads nestled on each other’s shoulders. It’s a depiction of the Visitation, the Gospel passage we just heard, Mary and Elizabeth embracing.

God levels all obstacles, including our sin – Bar 5:1-9, Luke 3:1-6.

 Second Sunday of Advent, Year C; St. Ann's and Chapel of Mary.

Every valley filled in; every mountain and hill brought low. Why? So we can walk home. In its original context, this prophecy is addressed to the Israelites during their exile in Babylon. The Babylonians had come and destroyed the Temple, that placed where they found God so powerfully, had blinded the king, and had taken the people away from the Promised Land and brought them to Babylon. A lifetime later, news comes that there’s a new military power in the Ancient Near East. The Persians are coming, and they’re likely to conquer the Babylonians, and let the Israelites come home. The prophet proclaims: This is God’s doing, and now our task is to walk home, and God is going to do everything in God’s power to help us do that, even reforming the earth to help us take the most direct route home possible.