Today the gospel recounts the joyful moment when Mary reveals to her cousin Elizabeth that she has received a revelation; that she would be the mother of the Messiah. Mary had heard the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the child she would receive would be son of the most high.

Son of the most high to a faithful Jew meant Messiah. In the covenant with David, the Israelite kings were called sons of God and the scriptures are clear that the Messiah who was promised by the prophets would come from the line of descent of the Davidic kingship.

Today we also hear the words of the prophet Micah and the letter to the Hebrews that speak about things that Mary could not know. The passage from Micah compares the suffering of Israel to a woman laboring to give birth. The Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has born. Israel will be given up to be conquered by other nations because of her betrayal of the covenant.  But Micah says the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. There will be a core group of faithful Israelites who will give birth to something new. This core group are those who will make the change from the old covenants into the new covenant.

John the Baptist and Mary are the major representatives of that change. We spent the first three Sundays of advent focusing on John the Baptist, and now we transition to the focus on Mary. Both of them together are signify an important change in human history which is why in icons and Christian art we often see them together at the foot of the cross; John – the last of the old covenant prophets, and Mary – the mother of the Messiah, the beginning of the new covenant.

In the next chapter the prophet Micah talks about what this change is going to involve. Micah 6:6-8; with what shall I come before the Lord? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings? With calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams? Shall I give my first born for the sin of my soul? You have been told o mortal, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God.

These verses are so crucial for us, they mark the great change in religious consciousness that Jesus brings to fulfillment as the true Messiah, and Hebrews points that out. The major change that Micah announced and Hebrews explains is a change in the meaning of sacrifice. We ended the liturgical year hearing about sacrifice, and we begin this liturgical year understanding how the nativity of Jesus puts into proper context sacrifice.

Remember that for centuries the temple of Israel flowed with blood because the only way that the people through they could be in the presence of God was to offer sacrifices in recognition of their sinfulness, but it was an act, not our of worship, but out of fear. The letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 which is passage very much like the passage from Micah: sacrifice and offering you did not desire. You took no delight in burnt offerings and sin offerings.

Jesus is born into this system of sacrifice in the temple, which is why he was not born in the temple, because the Lord desired something different. That is what Micah the prophets is looking forward to. Jump now from Christmas week to Holy Week, Thursday to be exact, when at the final Passover with the disciples, Jesus revealed that he would replace the Passover sacrifices with his own death on the cross.

So I mentioned that this transition was going to happen through a core group of Jewish disciples, John the Baptist being one of them, then after his death, the disciples and Mary would be the first to understand the reality of the new covenant. The fact that John the Baptist was killed, sacrificed for the sake of peace, speaks of the need for change. As it often happens, in all history of religions, throughout all cultures, sacrifice sometimes became human sacrifice, it was the way you showed commitment and devotion to the gods. The death of Jesus himself would be the climax of that reality. The Messiah himself would be sacrificed in the name of preserving order, an attempt at peace by those who were in power.

The providence of God is of course working with all of this, and in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, brings the great change in the history of the human religious journey. The letter to the Hebrews puts it this way, Jesus has come to take away sacrifice as a way of pleasing God…  we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  Thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus which puts an end to sacrifice that was driven by the power of sin and fear, we are now given a new form of power, the power of Gods love through Jesus Christ the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and this final sacrifice initiates a new era of transformation, no longer stuck in fear, but living in all the possibility that comes with love.

The love we received leads to freedom from sin. I am no longer enslaved by my own limitations and inadequacies. I am no longer frustrated because I feel or have been told that I am unworthy to be in God´s presence… and driven by the power of love puts me in the situation where I myself become self gift for others. The letter to the Hebrews concludes; through Jesus let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name, and do not neglect to do good and to share what you have. God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.

Praise and thanksgiving. Doing good for others. Sharing your blessings. These are the new sacrifices of the people of God in the new covenant, the church. This is the new direction of our worship. As we begin the eucharistic prayer, the celebrant asks the people pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God our almighty father. We pray that our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving will do justice to the love and mercy that God has shown us.

In the oldest of the eucharistic prayers which dates back to the 3rd century we affirm our desire to live in God’s love. We give thanks that you consider us worthy to be in your presence and minister to you. Then, as we prepare to receive the power of Jesus in the Eucharist we pray Lord I am not worthy that you shall enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

This is a prayer of confidence that calls us to overcome any sense of unworthiness, because we hear the word of the Lord inviting you to be here: blessed are those called to the supper of the lamb. We receive the power of the Lamb of God who heals us and takes away anything that keeps us from becoming the person that we are made to be.

That is what God wants for and from you… that is his will, there is no need to guess, it is not a mystery, you have been told what is good and what the Lord requires; only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God. We can do that because as we celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice we do it as Jesus told us, in memory of what he has done for us. We remember that no other sacrifice is now needed. We are loved by God and God’s power works for all of us in love. The sacrifice of Jesus becomes a communion meal with our risen savior. Sacrifice is transformed so that through it you an I an be transformed. Jesus says to us now that I have freed you from fear about your relationship with God receive my power and go out to do justice goodness and to walk humbly with God, treating every person you meet as a sister or brother created in the image of God.

To do justice means to defend those who are not being given the chance to grow as men and women created in the image of God. We look for ways to lift up those who have been discouraged and disrespected. To love goodness means to actively promote the gifts of every human person, we look for God and each person and we are concerned to encourage others to use their gifts and to support them where we can. To walk humbly with God means that we do not consider ourselves better than others. We know that God has treated us with mercy so we are able to offer mercy to others, because we don’t consider failures could be signs of inferiority. We can empathize with the struggles of others as they try to navigate the challenges of life.

The gospel tells us that at the moment that Elizabeth heard the sound of Mary’s voice the infant John the Baptist leaped for joy in her womb. The moment of quickening when the mother first feels the movement to the infant in her womb was through of in the ancient world to be the moment when God infused the soul into the body. Catholic theology now says that happens at the moment of conception, but that was the understanding then. So by Luke including this, he is telling us that through the proclamation of the good news through Mary, in the presence of the infant Jesus, John the Baptist received his soul, he received his mission. Ever feel lost in the world… ever feel like you don’t have a purpose… ask Mary to speak words of truth to you, and let Jesus give you your mission. Transformation begins there.

You have been told what is good and what the Lord requires only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God. This is the common mission shared by all human beings made in the image of God. As we do justice, as we love goodness, as we walk with humility, we become the men and women that God has intended us to be. We become part of the mission of Jesus to take away the sin of the world and to replace it with unity and peace.

Fr. Carlos