MARY OF NAZARETH
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year C, is, “Doctor Faust and Mary of
Nazareth.”
I noticed in today’s gospel that the baby in Elizabeth’s
womb leaped with joy when Mary came down from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to help her cousin. Luke tells
us that the baby in Elizabeth leaped for joy two times.
Moms - what is like the first time your baby moved in your
womb?
What does that do for a mother to be?
Us men have no clue - at least I don’t - what that must
do for a mom’s psyche - her spirits - her life - her spirituality - to feel the
moving of a baby in her womb.
It got me thinking about Mary. What was that like when
Jesus began to “kick” or “leap” in Mary’s womb? What were her thoughts and
wonderings? I’m sure all of you here who have been moms know what those
thoughts and wonderings are like.
RESEARCH
For a homily I began to do some research. First I wanted
to know what the Greek word was for “leaped”.
It is “skirtao”. Here in the gospel of Luke,
this is the only place that image and word appears.
The baby kicks Elizabeth -
jumps - moves - leaps - inside her womb. What a moving message and great image!
That image appears only
once in the Bible. It’s when Rebecca is pregnant with twins.
Next I looked up if anyone
else used that image of leaping - in some poem or play or story - somewhere.
Surprise I found one in
Christopher Marlow’s 1604 play, The
Tragic History of Doctor Faustus.
The leap doesn’t take
place in a womb - but in the womb of the mind of Doctor John Faustus.
Next I wondered if using
the idea of leaping in the womb of a woman like Elizabeth and Mary - if that
leaping of the mind of Doctor Faustus - could be a contrast for some thinking
in a homily.
I hesitated because if I do that, I’d be making quite a leap as well. If it
doesn’t work - and I don’t pull it off - I’d have a pretty messy sermon - that
is far-fetched. You be the judge.
So in Christopher Marlowe’s
play on Doctor Faustus, he has Doctor Faustus wanting to leap!
Christopher Marlowe took an old legend about a man named
Faust who sold his soul to the devil for 24 years of power over everything. He
makes the deal and the rest is a fight between good and evil. The rest is a
tragedy of fear - with all kinds of characters in it.
Near the end of the 24 years - when he’s about to die and
be thrown into hell he screams out that he would love to “leap up to my God!”
He asks, “Who will pull me down?” Then he says these powerful words, “See, see
where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament - [the stars]! One drop would
save my soul - half a drop: ah my Christ!”
He wants to leap up to taste a drop - or even a half of
drop of Christ’s blood.
The title of my homily is, “Doctor Faust and Mary of
Nazareth.”
Elizabeth - pregnant with John the Baptist - experiences
a visit from her cousin Mary. The baby in her womb leaps with joy towards the
beginning of the Christ in Mary’s womb.
Is that what Luke is trying to get us to imagine? That we leap towards the Christ -
like Marlowe has Doctor Faustus wanting to leap towards Christ’s blood and be
saved.
Mary of Nazareth is full of grace. What were her thoughts
as her blood was forming the Christ - that his blood was mixing with her blood -
in her womb. And the baby within her leaped for joy.
Doctor Faust is filled with evil and horror and hurt -
and wants to leap up for at least half a drop of Christ’s blood.
HEAVEN AND
HELL?
Shakespeare’s plays and this play by Marlowe and many
medieval plays were put on stage to put big themes before people.
This is not far-fetched. Right now we have Star Wars -
Number 7 -The Force Awakens.
It was interesting to read that L’osservatore romano -
the Vatican Newspaper - said the villains in Star Wars # 7 - aren’t portrayed
as bad or evil or dark enough - nothing like Darth Vader in past Star Wars movies.
Bigger than Star Wars - fighting the force of evil and
good - are issues for us to think about and reflect upon - from time to time -
and being priest I would obviously say - when we come to church on Sunday.
Heaven and Hell - Good and Evil - are portrayed big time
in lots of plays and movies.
Each of us has to face our smaller heavens and hells each
day.
In Doctor Faust by Marlow - he has to deal with the Seven
Capital Sins and visions of hell all the time - besides his fantasies of power
and the miracles he can perform - like conjuring up grapes in winter.
In our lives we want the easy way out at times - and in
the meanwhile we have to fight our wars with sin and evil - at home and at work
- and in our heart and mind - nothing like San Bernardino and Paris and Star
Wars or Doctor Faustus.
IN THE
MEANWHILE
in the meanwhile we can pray the rosary or the Hail Mary
and ask Mary to visit us like she visited her cousin Elizabeth and hopefully
the Christ within us stirred.
Hopefully this Christmas Christ is born again in us. Or we
smile because that happened a long time ago. The adult Christ has grown up -
and long ago left the stable of our soul - and we have an adult to adult
relationship with Christ.
CONCLUSION: OUR
LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP
Let me conclude this way: we Redemptorists were asked 150
years ago to push and promote one of the many images of Mary - and Jesus. It’s
called Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
I come from a parish in Brooklyn with that name - and
during World War I and afterwards I saw people
coming to that church praying for their loved ones at war. I saw all through my
years in grammar school years people coming to that church to kneel and pray
before that image of Mary and I heard many priests say that in times of trouble
- family wars, what have you, Mary is there as Perpetual Help.
Take a look at that picture or icon.
The first thing to look at is the sandal on the foot of
Jesus. It’s falling off.
See her son having an image of his future suffering - see
the cross and the nails - in the angels hands - and he runs and leaps into her
arms - losing his sandal in the process.
And once more she feels the leap of Jesus in her lap.
Be like that - leap like Jesus into his life or his mother’s
life - and receive perpetual help without having to sell one’s soul.
