We're now just three short days away from the celebration of Christmas,
and the Gospel moves us along toward that moment
of the birth of Christ.
Yesterday, the Gospel that we read was the Annunciation.
Well, today we have the culmination of the Visitation,
that is, the Magnificat of Our Lady.
And we see how closely it resembles
the hymn of praise and thanksgiving sung by Hannah.
The first reading explains how Hannah went to the temple,
brought Samuel, her son,
to give praise and thanksgiving to God,
Hannah, who was barren for many years,
and prayed that the Lord would give her a child,
and that if the Lord granted her this grace,
that she would consecrate this child
and dedicate it to the Lord for his entire life.
And so we go on into the Responsorial Psalm,
which is,
the words of Hannah,
the words of her praise and thanksgiving to God,
which closely resemble the words of Our Lady in the Magnificat.
And we can certainly say that the words of Hannah
probably had an influence on Our Lady.
Our Lady had knowledge of the Scriptures,
better knowledge than anyone else,
and nonetheless,
we should affirm that Our Lady's hymn of thanksgiving
in the Magnificat is unique to her.
She, being the immaculate spouse of the Holy Spirit,
of course, was inspired by her spouse
to pronounce these words.
And Our Lady explains in the Magnificat
how God had blessed her with this grace
because of her humility.
And this is the first and necessary disposition of the soul
in order to receive any grace from God.
As James writes in his letter,
God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
And so Our Lady was more humble than any other creature,
and as a result, received greater grace than any other creature.
This is also the necessary disposition,
greater disposition for each and every one of us
in order to receive God's grace this Christmas season.
And so we ought to know very well
what is the virtue of humility.
The definition of the virtue of humility is this.
The virtue by which one acknowledges
that God is the author of all that is good.
That God is the author of all that is good.
That we shouldn't attribute any of our gifts,
our natural gifts,
or our supernatural gifts of grace to ourselves,
but recognize that God is the source of all that is good
in us and in others.
And this is exactly what we find
in Our Lady's hymn in the Magnificat,
is that she is acknowledging God
as the author of the good things,
the great things,
worked in her.
As Our Lady says,
because he that is mighty
has done great things to me.
We also notice in Our Lady's humility
that it's not a false humility.
She isn't denying the fact
that God has done great things in her.
St. Alphonsus Liguori points out
that Our Lady had good knowledge
of her being filled with grace.
And of course she knew
that God had given her this great gift,
the vocation to be the mother of God.
But at the same time,
she knew more than anyone else
that all of this was due to God's goodness
and generosity with respect to her.
And so as a result,
she receives greater grace than others
and magnifies the Lord.
As she says,
my soul magnifies the Lord.
And so let us ask Our Lady
as we are making our final preparations
for Christmas
to receive Christ
and to receive a greater outpouring of his grace
to fill our hearts
with this virtue of humility,
to recognize and attribute
all good things in us
and all the good
that we are capable of doing
principally to God and his action.
In the name of the Father
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.