The Hills Are Alive by the Incarnate Word

Homily for December 21

One of my strongest impressions visiting the Holy Land a number of years ago is how accurate the topography is according to what we find in the Bible. You have to “go up” to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is on a mountain. Reaching the Church of the Ascension takes a real, honest hike up the Mount of Olives. And the site of the Visitation is very much in the hill country, as we heard in today’s Gospel.

The difference moving into the hill country is striking. Where much of the Holy Land is dry and arid, the Judaean hills are teeming with life, green and vibrant. It made sense to me that this is where the Incarnate Word would first go. Christ living in Mary moves his Mother to set out in haste to where there is visible, perceptible vitality, because he is the one who has come to make all things new (cf. Rev. 21:5). In the imagery of the Song of Songs, Christ springs across the mountains, leaps across the hills, declaring that winter is now past and making flowers spring up on the earth.

Christmas is the feast in which we celebrate the manifestation of God’s plan of full and total re-creation in Christ. The one who makes all things new has taken flesh and made his dwelling among us (cf. Jn. 1:14). Yet his work is not done at once but constantly accomplished, making each day we live a kind of Christmas: a new manifestation of what God is doing in Christ to bring new life to us. We can look to the natural world for many reminders: how each morning begins with darkness fading and light dawning, cold retreating and warmth coming, sleep recessing and consciousness again awaking.

Wherever Christ goes, life follows. As we prepare for Christmas in just a few days, may we prepare every day for the new life Christ comes each day to bring.