The Tale of Two Mothers
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 23, 2018
Luke 1: 46-56
“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
(Lk. 1:45)
Today’s Gospel is truly beautiful. We have two protagonists. They are women, and they are both pregnant. Who are they? Mary and Elizabeth. Yet, why is the story beautiful? It is just natural for women to get pregnant. Unless we need to go closer to the stories and place ourselves in the shoes of Mary and Elisabeth, we can never see the true beauty of their story.
First, Mary, she is young, and at the same time, she is pregnant with no husband. St. Joseph is indeed the husband of Mary, but he is not the father of the baby. Perhaps, in our time, if a woman gets pregnant and yet without a husband, this is an unfortunate event, but life goes on for both the woman and child. however, if we go back to the time of Mary, way back two thousand years ago, that woman would be a great disgrace her family and community. She would be expelled from the community, and sometimes, they would be also stoned to death. Mary understands that when she accepts the will of God, to be the mother of Jesus, she faces death. Indeed, death is the future of Mary.
Second, Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a husband, so nobody will stone her, but her situation is also difficult. She is too old to get pregnant. Once I asked my medical doctor-friends, why is it risky to get pregnant if you are old? One said that as we grow old, so does our body and our muscles. With weaker muscles, a mother will have a difficult time during the process of giving birth, and this can be very dangerous to the baby and the mother. I said further, why not caesarian? They said that it is also difficult if not deadly. As we grow old, our hearts weaken. If we place ourselves under the knife, with weaker hearts, there is a big possibility that we will not wake up. Like Mary, death may be the future of Elizabeth.
If Mary and Elizabeth know that it is dangerous and even deadly to be pregnant, why are they still following the will of the Lord?
The answer is at the very name of Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. Zachariah is from the Hebrew word “Zakar”, meaning to remember. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is formed two Hebrew words, Eli and Sabbath, meaning God’s oath or promise. So if we combine the two names, Zachariah-Elizabeth, they mean “God remembers His promise” or “God fulfills His promise.”
Elizabeth knows it is deadly to have John in her womb, but she still follows the will of God, because she is aware the baby was a fulfillment of God’s promise. Mary from Nazareth, the north part of Israel, travels to Judea, the south of Israel, in haste. But, why in haste? Mary is excited, and she wishes to witness how God fulfills His promise to Elizabeth. The moment Mary sees Elizabeth; she knows that the baby inside her womb is also a fulfillment of God’s promise.
Every child, indeed every on us is the fulfillment of God’s promise. Mary and Elizabeth never see the babies in their wombs as mere inconveniences in their lives or unplanned garbage that can be disposed of. Yet, to accept these babies as gifts of God, Mary and Elizabeth have to be courageous because they are going to sacrifice a lot including their own lives. Elizabeth and Mary are brave women and mothers.
The questions are for us: Who among us is not coming from a woman’s womb? We are all here because of a mother. Indeed, not all mothers are perfect. Some of them are not rich, some are having attitude problems, some are not good examples. Yet, the mere fact we are here now, one woman in our life, against all odds, has decided to courageously accept us as a gift, as the fulfillment of God’s promise. To all mothers, thank you very much.
Deacon Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP
The second question that Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan asked us during our ordination was, “Are you broken enough?” Once again his question raised eyebrows and was, indeed, counter-intuitive. We want to be flawless, whole and perfect. We desire to achieve more in life, to be wealthy, healthy and pretty. We wish to be socially accepted, respected and gain certain prominence. We want to become somebody, and not nobody. We like others to call us as the famous doctors, the creative entrepreneurs, or successful lawyers. Or for us, people in the Church, we like people to consider us well-sought preachers, generous and builder-priests, or skillful and well-educated sisters.
Our Liturgical Year ends with a drama of two kings: Pilate and Jesus. Pilate was representing the superpower nation in those times, the Roman Empire. So massive in its military domination and so ruthless in its conquests are Rome with her mighty legions. Kingdoms bent their knees in homage to Caesar, the king of kings. Pilate embodied this culture of intimidation and violence. He was a notoriously brutal leader, who stole from his subjects and executed people even without a trial. Surely, he thought of himself as the powerful ‘king’ of Jerusalem and anyone who stood on his way, would be destroyed.