Homily for Monday of the 4th Week of Advent

Several years ago, an infant named Liam was born with a heart missing one of the four chambers needed to pump blood through his tiny body. By the time he was two, Liam had undergone surgery twice to rebuild his heart.

 

His parents, Brian and Mary, were frightened by the experience. However, his father said that the family’s trauma was also a moment of grace. He said that the first operation was terrifying, but it happened so fast and was so necessary and so soon after his birth that the family just staggered through it.

 

By the second operation, Liam was two years old and had developed a wonderful personality. This time, in even greater fear of losing Liam, Brian went into a deep and dark place of fear. However, his wife’s hand touched him like a hawk and ripped him away from that dark place. He said her touch was a moment of pure grace that truly saved his soul.

 

In today’s Gospel reading, we witness such a moment of grace between Mary and Elizabeth.  We see the love that enabled one cousin to put aside her situation to help the other cousin. We also see the compassion that allowed the older woman to offer comfort and joy to the younger woman in her anguish.

 

Elizabeth mirrors family at its best. As husbands and wives, as mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, God has given us one another to create a safe, welcoming place called family. And for some, the family is found outside these relationships. It is in these relationships – all called family – that we experience the saving grace of God.+