ON BEING THE FAVORITE

  

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for December 20^th  is, “On Being the Favorite.”

I don’t know about you, but I love to ask parents who their favorite child is.

Most of the time parents respond  that they don’t have a favorite.

Others nuance their answer by saying, “It all depends. I like this about this one and that about that one. So it all depends.”

And sometimes a parent says they have a favorite.

I never had problems with someone being the favorite, because I had favorite teachers and favorite priests I’ve been stationed with.

And sometimes I add something people don’t like to report: there are some folks who are not my favorites.

WHY I’M BRINGING THIS UP?

I’m bringing this up because this is a way of translating Luke 1: 28 - which is part of today’s gospel. It’s where the angel Gabriel says to Mary, “Hail full of grace. The Lord is with you.”

Most translations say, “Greetings, most favored one.” or “Hail , O favored one.” The King James Bible has , “Hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with you.”  In Greek: it’s “kecharitomene”  - favored one.

Our Catholic translation goes with the beginning of the Hail Mary,  “full of Grace….”

I’ve run into Protestants and others who don’t get the Catholic thing about Mary.  I like to say, “Walk into any big city art museum and walk around and look at the pictures. You’ll find out she’s the favorite of so many artists.  Then I am tempted to add, “And you think Mary is our favorite. Talk to God and you’ll find out that Mary is God’s favorite as well.”

So when we say the Hail Mary, we’re not only saying what the Angel Gabriel said - but we’re joining with billions of people who have praised God for picking Mary to be his Mother.  God chose Mary  to bring Christ into our world - because she is the Father’s favorite.

Moreover, God gives Mary to us and Christ gave her to us from the cross.  

Hail full of Grace, most faithful one of God.

CONCLUSION

Then the call to all of us is to be like Mary - to favor those we’re with.

We know people who have  run out of wine  of life. Mary helped the couple at Cana in Galilee when they ran out of wine.  We know people who are hurting along the way of their cross - and those who are dying.  Mary was there for all - on their ways of the cross - and she is under our cross when we’re dying.

We pray for that in every Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

If I hear anything about Jesus it’s he noticed who was stuck - who was touching the tassels on his cloak - those who were under the tree of a cross.

So I assume he learned much from Mary. Hey the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.