The Blessed Virgin Mary believed the Word of the Lord, and in holy faith she said “Yes” to His Word. She submitted herself to His divine and holy Will. She entrusted her body and life to Him: Not a tithe or token, but 100 percent, a living sacrifice. A woman does not bear a child with only part of herself, but with all that she is. Throughout the nine months of pregnancy, it is true that a mother’s work is never done. And even after birth, there is still much work to be done, a great and ongoing burden of responsibility to feed and clothe, to shelter and protect, to nurture and teach.
But now, what has the Lord spoken to you, and how shall you say “Let it be” to His Word? What is His Will for your body and life? In love for Him, how shall you love your neighbor as yourself?
Truly to love is to give yourself, to spend yourself entirely, and to pour yourself out for another.
With that in mind, do not suppose that the gifts you give, whether later this week or any other time, whether purchased or made with your own hands, can actually substitute for the gift of yourself.
But maybe you are already spent to the point of exhaustion, or bent and broken in heart and mind, and you simply can’t even imagine giving anything more of yourself to anyone. There are lots of lost and wandering people in the world. Perhaps you feel that way, yourself. Alone and confused. Afraid of so many things, including the unknown. Distant. At war with everything around you, and with everyone. Angry or unhappy. Disappointed, discouraged, and disconnected from others.
Do you have such heavy burdens to bear? By yourself? Is it because your neighbor has neglected you? Or is it because you have turned away from your neighbor and turned inward upon yourself?
The tragic irony of selfishness is that you wind up alone and lonely, precisely because you are so wrapped up in yourself, so concerned with yourself — to the exclusion and neglect of everyone else around you. Even what you do for others, you do for your own sake and your own benefit. And the more you strive to get and to keep for yourself, the more isolated and disconnected you become. In your wealth you remain empty, and even in your feasting you are never satisfied.
But as God the Lord has spoken, it is not good for you to be alone. You were not created to live unto yourself in lonely isolation, but to live in love with God and with your neighbors.
In particular, you were created to live in the Communion of Saints, in the one Body of the one Lord Jesus Christ, to live in a relationship with fellow saints within the household and family of God.
That is the Life for which the Holy Triune God has created you, and to which He has called you in divine and holy Love. And that is at the heart of the Word that He speaks to you in great mercy.
So, how shall you say “Yes” to that Word? How shall you submit yourself to His Will for you? And how shall you receive and bear the incarnate Son of God in your flesh, in your body and life, for His Name’s sake in holy faith, and for the benefit of your neighbors in holy love?
The best way to have friends is to be a friend. And the best way to find love is to love others — in words and deeds, in spirit and in truth. But let there be no strategy of selfishness at work in your friendship and your love; for selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-love are really the opposite of friendship and love. Rather, entrust your whole body and life to the Lord your God, conform yourself to His Word and to His Will, and so offer yourself as a living sacrifice of faith and love.
That is to say, in loving the Lord your God above all things, in faith before Him, so love and serve and care for your neighbors as you naturally love and serve and care for your own body and life.
Have you heard how quickly St. Mary went to visit St. Elizabeth? And have you heard how gladly St. Elizabeth welcomed her? Consider the friendship and love and mutual help they found and received in each other, all the while their bodies were given over to the good work of bearing the children God had entrusted to them and to their stewardship according to His grace and mercy.
The comfort and consolation these women give and receive in each other exemplifies the work of God in all the members of His Church. As those who fear, love, and trust in Him unite their wills to His, so does He unite His divine work and sacrifice to theirs. Not as though He depends on them, but as the means by which He graciously accomplishes His purposes for them and for others.
And it is all of one harmonious piece. Thus, St. Elizabeth welcomes and rejoices in the Lord, her Savior, in welcoming His Mother and rejoicing over her and with her. And St. Mary receives the proclamation of St. John, pointing to her Son, through the words of St. Elizabeth. In loving and serving and clinging to each other, they cling to the Lord, and they are loved and served by Him.
The gracious work of God is likewise hidden in the good work He has given you to do. So you love and serve Him in the members of His Body, in your brothers and sisters within His family.
That begins with your own parents, your husband or wife and your children, if you have them. So, spend yourself in loving those nearest neighbors at hand, no less so than a mother with her child.
If you are a husband and father, do not be distant from your wife and children, but draw near to them in what you say and do, and so also in how you listen to them and give attention to them. As you work to provide for them, so also serve and care for them with your presence and your time.
But if you do have a family of your own — whether as a parent, spouse, or child — know that your family points beyond itself to the household and family of God. Love and serve that family, also, especially those members who have no other family here on earth. For the Lord gathers all His sons and daughters together into one Body, under one Head, all His sheep under one Shepherd.
And if you do not have a spouse or children, or parents any longer, rejoice all the more in that fellowship of the Body of Christ Jesus. Understand that your freedom from the joys and burdens of a family is a freedom to spend yourself in service to others, to the Church and to your neighbors, to help those with families in their needs, and to help others without families in their needs, too.
Do not imagine or make the excuse that you have too little to give, or that you are not up to the task at hand. Within the place He has called you to be, in whatever office He has stationed you, the Lord your God joins His good and gracious work to all of your works of love; and His Word and promises to you are not impotent but powerful. That is evident in these two women with child — old Elizabeth, who was called barren, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who did not know a man.
Whatever job the Lord has given you to do, whatever duty and responsibility He lays upon you in this body and life, He supplies all that is needed, and He works His work in you by His grace.
Do not worry about how much will be left for you and your needs, if you spend your time and energy in loving the neighbors God has set before you. And do not fret about how much your neighbor reciprocates your love, whether a lot or a little or not at all, with or without any thanks.
If you are emptied, the Lord will fill you up with Himself and His good things. If you are humbled, He will raise you up and exalt you in His presence. If you are impoverished, He will still feed you with Meat and Drink indeed. If you perish, you perish; yet, the Lord gives you His eternal Life.
The surety of your resurrection and your Life everlasting with God is the Body of Christ Jesus, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, put to death and buried, but also risen from the dead and seated at the Right Hand of God the Father, your great and merciful High Priest — given for you here, at His Altar, for your Life and your Salvation in Him.
The One who was rich beyond all measure made Himself poor, and the Most High made Himself lowly; the exalted One humbled Himself and became obedient, even unto death on the Cross. He gives not a tithe or a token, not a part or a portion, but His whole Self, His whole Body and Life, His Flesh and Blood, that you should be enlivened and enriched with all the treasures of God.
He fully united His human will with the Will of His God and Father and submitted Himself to it; and by the voluntary Sacrifice of His Body on the Cross, He has sanctified you for eternal Life.
So it is, likewise, that by the bloody sweat and labor of His Passion He gives birth to the children of God in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism — as He has surely done for Maximus this morning!
Your body and life are sanctified by Christ Jesus, for now and forever, by His Gospel. Your work and sacrifice are also sanctified by His, and vindicated in His Resurrection from the dead. Your faithfulness is taken up into His faithfulness and perfected in Him; and where you are unfaithful, His faithfulness avails for you with His forgiveness of sins, to save you from death and hell.
In the midst of your poverty, weakness, and daily failures, His poverty becomes your wealth, His weakness becomes your strength and your song, and His bitter suffering and death for the sins of the world become your glorious victory and great salvation. This is how Immanuel, the Lord your God, draws near to you, and visits you in mercy, and abides with you in love, now and forever.
If you are spent to the point of exhaustion in loving and serving a spouse, a child, a parent, or a neighbor, whether friend or foe — if you are altogether broke or broken — know that Christ Jesus the Lord is with you to help you and save you. He has kind regard for your humble state. He has done great things for you — and He shall do so — for His mercy and His Name rest upon you.
Consider how intimately He came to abide with dear St. Mary, with His own Body of flesh and blood within her womb. And then see here, how He comes to abide with you, God’s own dear child, giving His own Body and Blood into your body. His Supper is the remembrance of His mercy. And shall the One who feeds you with such Good Things and joins Himself to you in love ever leave you or forsake you? No, He shall not. All that He has spoken to you, He shall do.
Blessed are you who believe it. Draw near and receive Him in the belly of His Mother; for blessed is the Fruit of her womb, which has now become the Fruit of His Cross, your Meat and Drink indeed. Thus abiding in Him, and He in you, return to your home in His perfect Peace and Joy.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment