The Lord often comes to us in a big surprise...

Homily for Luke 1:39-45 Fourth Sunday of Advent 2009

“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste.” These words begin our Gospel today; and as it is so close to Christmas, I would wager most children wish they could have Christmas come with great haste. In fact right now.
This week will certainly be the most hectic week of the year; finishing the shopping, preparing the meals, finishing the decorating, and the cards and gifts, the list is endless. We certainly feel the pressure and the haste with which we will have to accomplish all that we have to get done before Christmas. And so it may also be the case that we have not reflected much on, and so have not finished, our spiritual preparation for Christmas....maybe we are thinking, “I’ve got to get to confession this week!” Hopefully, this is what we are thinking if we have not made it yet.
We have to admit that many of the things we do this week will have to be done in haste if they are going to get done at all. But before we panic, let us remind ourselves of what the season of Advent is all about and what, or should I say, Who, we are preparing for. Our advent season is a time of expecting Christ to come.
If you recall we mentioned the three different comings of Christ, his future coming in glory, his past coming at Bethlehem and his coming now into our hearts through the Holy Mass and Holy Communion. On Friday we will liturgically celebrate Jesus' past coming in that first Christmas at Bethlehem; But we still have much work to do in the most important coming of Christ- the coming of Christ now into our hearts and souls through the Holy Eucharist.
To help us prepare, in what little time we have left, today in our Gospel, we discover that our Lord often comes to us through a big surprise. In today's Gospel, we hear the account of the Visitation- the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Elizabeth; the encounter of the two expectant mothers. For the two of them, their encounter was something that was not planned or even expected, it was a big surprise.
The surprise began when Zachariah the priest was offering the sacrifice in the Holy of Holies and St. Gabriel appeared to him, announcing that Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth would have a son in their old age. What a big surprise that must have been, In fact, poor Zachariah was so surprised he couldn't even believe what the archangel was telling him. After all, Elizabeth, his wife, had prayed for so long for a child, but remained barren.
Yes, it was a big surprise from God, but Elizabeth had indeed conceived a child. So surprised was she, that she actually went into seclusion; you'd could almost image how embarrassed she must have been conceiving at such an old age. But there in seclusion, she was in for another big surprise from the Lord, when her cousin Mary came to visit. Mary too was with Child. And because of Mary's Child, surprisingly, the child within Elizabeth's own womb leaped for joy. How big a surprise all of this was.
God had exceeded their wildest dreams and had fulfilled His will in these surprising events. In them, we discover that the heart of Elizabeth was open to the great surprise of God. After experiencing the surprise of the first Eucharistic procession, as Jesus was carried in to her presence in a living monstrance, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Elizabeth would exclaim, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” In light of the surprises of God in today's Gospel, we can only imagine about all sorts of surprises that God is capable of doing in our own lives.
As Christmas nears, we can all think about the big surprises we have had in Christmas' gone by And we all look forward, especially us who are a kid at heart for big surprise to come this Christmas. And even more we hope to surprise those we love with a special gift in order to show them how much they mean to us and how much we love them. I want to share with a personal story of a surprise I pulled this Christmas, on someone who means the world to me and who I love, my dad.
A few weeks ago I was home, and my dad and I were at Lowes buying some things for my house in Wisconsin. Before we left the store, he wandered over to the snow blowers and admired them. He told me how much he'd like to have one of these. His old snow blower it seems had served it's time. I never thought much of it, I was too busy worrying about getting my own work done before my return back to Rochelle.
Last week when we got that big snow, I was talking to my mom. She told me that my dad had been shoveling snow all day long; it seems that the belt broke on his old snow blower as he tried to start it; and so he had to shovel all that snow by hand. I thought about all those thing he had done for me while I was home; not to mention all the hours he worked on my house when I wasn't there, all the hours he spends helping me every time I go home. I felt sick, that here he was 74 years old, and he is out shoveling all that snow by himself, and wet and heavy snow at that.
I told mom, "We need to buy him that snow blower and we need to do it right now; and not even wait till Christmas to surprise him." I immediately went to the store in Rockford and looked at them. As I look at them, I called my mom and said, "the one dad wants is not good enough." The higher priced one is much better. I knew my dad would never buy himself such a good one, so I said to my mom let's get him the better one. And so I brought the good one for dad.
But I thought, if we give it to dad now, we need to surprise him in big way to make up for the fact that he'll miss out on the surprise of receiving it at Christmas. And so, with the help of two wonderful ladies at the store, we transferred the sale to the store near dad and devised a plan to give my him a big surprise. My mom would get him to the local store, by saying they should go look at new snow blower since his old one broke. And so as they looked at them, the sales lady at the store said she would take care of the rest.
The next day, off to the store mom and dad went. And so as my dad was in the store looking, at the lower price snow blowers (there were over ten of them, the sales lady told him she was sorry but all them were already sold, they only thing that was left was a plug in model (just a little fib, but all for a good reason).
As she pulled my dad's leg, another worker wheeled out the "top of the line" snow blower right in front of my dad and said, excuse me sir, but are you Don Lange. My Dad looking stunned said, yes. And the worker said, "This snow blower is yours." My dad said, "how can it be mine?" The worker said, "look it has your name on it.", as he showed my dad the sales receipt bearing His name and the words "Paid in full"!
My mom told me, if you could have seen you dad's expression it was priceless, he was totally shocked it was a big surprise. Then my dad looked at my mom and said, "you did this." She said, how could I do it, I don't know a thing about buying a snow blower. He asked the sales lady, "who did this?" And she said, "Sir, I believe it was Santa Claus." Dad said, "no I am serious, I need to know who did this?" and the lady said, "Sir, I am serious too, It was Santa Claus."
We, in our last days before Christmas, have the opportunity to be surprised, not only by our families, but by our Blessed Lord. Because He loves you so much, Our God this Christmas wants to give you as well, a big surprise. His surprises come in ways we are not expecting, in the ordinary and even in the mundane events of everyday life.
His surprises come in the darkness and the quietness of a womb; and in the darkness and quietness of a stable cave. His big surprise comes to us in a tiny little babe, who is at the same time the Almighty God among us as one of us. And finally, His biggest surprise of all comes to us as apparently ordinary words are spoken over ordinary bread and wine, and that same little babe of Bethlehem is born anew on this sacred altar--the bread and wine transformed, through the miracle of transubstantiation, into Emmanuel--God still with us.
And so, the question is, are you prepared for the big surprise God wants to give you. Is your heart open to receive it? It not's too late, there is still time.