Advent 4: Call Us Up

‘Despise not prophecy,’ implores St. Paul (1 Th. 5:20). Yet we do. Amid the rubble of leaders whose unclean lives skewed real prophetic wisdom (we each have them in our neighborhoods; mine still smolders with the sad, slow burn of Mike Bickle’s legacy at IHOP-KC), we are tempted to mistrust the Spirit’s fire.

So we mutter against the fallen and feel justified in our unbelief. Commiseration fuels our community life, not the expectancy of visitation—God dwelling among Jesus’ members to rouse us to greater things. Extraordinary seeing and saying matters; prophecy clarifies in an instant God’s greater plan for us amid the dulling of everyday woes.

More than ever, we need to repent of our muttering and embrace again the call to give and get prophetic encouragement, one to another. I will forever be grateful for a fiery woman at church who called me into my masculine integrity (‘You are Andrew, God’s masculine son’) amid my profoundly divided life. Now I look outward, constantly, to the people around me who need to be reminded of their truest selves. The Spirit burns in me to call them up.

That is the true Spirit of prophecy. Jesus gives each of us authority to do so if we are faithful to follow His stirrings.

Today, on this fourth Sunday of Advent, we witness the mother of all such prophetic visitations (every pun intended). Pregnant Mary encounters more pregnant Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-45. A 14-year-old girl is bearing the Savior of the universe—a pregnancy that her husband barely understands, and she is just one step ahead of him.

Upon receiving Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s prenatal John the Baptist ‘beholds the Lamb of God’ (Jn. 1:29); the prophet leaps in her womb, and Spirit-inspired Elizabeth gives Mary a confirmation unlike any other: ‘Blessed are you among women…Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ (Lk. 1:43, 44).  

That is the essence of prophecy, of real visitation of Spirit between the people of God. Elizabeth is seized with perfect sight as to who Mary bears (‘my Lord’) and, in turn, who Mary is—the Mother of God. Stunning. She then blesses Mary: ‘Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her would be accomplished’ (Lk 1:45).

I have heard many describe this encounter as a gift of Immaculate Mary to her weaker elder cousin. I don’t buy it. Mary still required solidarity, real sisterhood amid the strangeness of her young life. Purity didn’t preclude struggle. Mary needed prophetic enrichment, encouragement, and edification.

She may well have intended to support her cousin, but she was as much in need of that support. And Elizabeth, in the power of the Spirit, called her up. You are the mother of the Savior of the universe! That infant is my Lord, and my child joyfully anticipates Him!

Real prophecy is utterly creative. Elizabeth drenches Mary in Spirit, who in turn launches out with the Magnificat (Lk. 1:46-55), Mary’s ode to who and how God is to all the poor who welcome His Mercy. Prophecy summons our best gifts, including this most beautiful song.

May the Visitation inspire us to burn again with expectancy for these creative gifts. See and say the glorious truth of another; bring these gifts to Church and world today. Everyone needs a well-aimed word that summons what is most authentic about him or her.

We call this magnanimity—aspiring to the greatness of bearing God’s image—and it calls us up from pusillanimity—a small, impoverished spirit that fails to reach for greatness, fearing disappointment or failure.  

The Church needs to rise from her failures and become truly great in the Spirit of humble Jesus. We need visitation. Bring it. Like Elizabeth summoning Mary’s greatness, call forth Jesus in your brother or sister. Repent. Blaze. Prophesy.

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