Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent
(Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Luke 1: 39-45)
A woman calls the priests she knows “Priest,” not
“Father.” She does so because of the
gospel injunction to “’call no one on earth your father…’” Of course, the
Church has given another interpretation to this statement of Jesus. But the woman tries, like Mary in today’s
gospel, to act on the word of God.
The purpose of Mary’s prompt visit to the hill country is
undoubtedly to see her kinswomen, Elizabeth.
Luke, the evangelist here, does not say what is commonly assumed – that
Mary went to help Elizabeth during the latter days of her pregnancy. Rather, his point is that Mary, as James will
later write, is a “doer of the word of God,” and a swift doer at that. She listens to God has to say to her,
contemplates in her heart its meaning, and then acts accordingly and decidedly. Because she proceeds in this way from the
beginning of the gospel, she is often called Jesus’ first or model disciple.
These days can be rich with contemplation or busy with
frenzied action. In Puerto Rico
traditional Catholics are arising to attend predawn masses. There they will be nourished by the word of
God and have the rest of the day to act on it.
