Saints Peter and Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church UAC

Trinity 9 - St. Luke 16:1-9 - Rt. Rev. James D. Heiser

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She Is a Sinner

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My dear friends, today we celebrate the Festival of Saint Mary Magdalene. Some might suppose that Magdalene is a last name, but it is not. This is why you may often hear me refer to our Lord + Jesus as “Jesus, the Christ.” So as not to give the impression that “Christ” is our Lord’s last name. Our Lord + Jesus is also referred to by another name: Jesus of Nazareth. This is similar to the saint who we celebrate today. St. Mary Magdalene is from Magdalene, or more accurately, Magdala, a fishing community on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Her city is listed so that we may distinguish her from the other Marys of the New Testament.

St. Mary Magdalene is associated with three different accounts of Marys in the New Testament. The Eastern Church only associates her with two of those accounts, so that some may be confused. She is certainly associated with the New Testament readings of the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. She was there at His cross and witnessed both His death and the place of His burial. She was also one of the first women to see our Lord + Jesus alive after His resurrection from the dead. In these readings she is named as St. Mary Magdalene so that there can be confusion about to which Mary is being referred. This Mary Magdalene we are told had seven demons cast from her by the Lord + Jesus.

She is also associated by the Western Church to be the Mary which we hear about during Monday of Holy Week. There Mary, in the home of Simon the l***r, and where she, her sister Martha, and her brother Lazarus were invited to dinner, took an alabaster flask of very expensive spikenard and anointed our Lord + Jesus. From these Scripture readings we learn that she is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. This means that she was there at the resurrection of her brother and confessed her belief in the resurrection of the dead to our Lord + Jesus. This means she is also the sister of Martha who listened intently to the words of our Lord + Jesus, while Martha busied herself with the task of a host.

The third association of a Mary in the New Testament to St. Mary Magdalene is this anonymous woman we meet in today’s Gospel reading from the Evangelist St. Luke. Our Lord + Jesus had been invited to sit down to meat with a Pharisee named Simon. Whether this is the same Simon the l***r from the Gospel of St. John is unclear. But it is likely. While they were in the house this anonymous woman, who has been associated by the Western Church as St. Mary Magdalene wet our Lord’s feet with her tears and dried them with her hair and anointed them with ointment from an alabaster flask. This was probably in thanksgiving for our Lord having healed her of her demon possession by seven demons. She was thankful that she had been freed from the bonds of the devil.

Simon, the Pharisee, witnessing this casts doubt upon the Lord + Jesus, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would have perceived who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him, that she is a sinner.” We are not told which sins Simon associated with this woman. However, from our scriptural knowledge of who St. Mary Magdalene was, we know that she was associated with prostitution. It would be inappropriate for someone who is a pr******te to touch anyone in this fashion, let alone the Lord + Jesus.

But our Lord knows something that Simon does not. He sees this woman’s repentance. Her tears and her anointing are outward signs of this. Simon had not learned to recognize such outward signs as pointing to her repentance. He only saw the acts that were attributed to this woman. Our Lord knows her repentance and guides Simon, the Pharisee, to see this truth as well. This woman, whose sins are many, was sorry for her sins, and wished to live a life pleasing to the Lord God. She also knew from Whom this forgiveness could be obtained. It could be granted from the gracious mercy of the Lord + Jesus. + Jesus of Nazareth could grant the remission of sins to St. Mary of Magdala. It is therefore right and proper that she offers tears of thanksgiving and repentance to the One Who had granted her a forgiveness that no one else could.

In our confessions we teach that we observe the Festivals of the Saints because they are an example of faith and life as true Christians. St. Mary Magdalene serves as an example to us of faith in the Lord + Jesus. She trusted in the Lord + Jesus to grant her forgiveness, and she found it in Him. We too have this opportunity to be granted remission of our sins from the Lord + Jesus. He won forgiveness of sins by His innocent suffering and death upon the tree of the holy cross. That forgiveness that He won for us is bestowed upon us through our anointing of water and the Word in Holy Baptism. Our sins are washed away through this anointing of water and the Word so that we are no longer counted as sinners, but are a New Creation in the Lord Christ + Jesus. Our sins which are many are washed away by the blood of the Lamb of God, Who poured out for us His Blood to win for us the remission of our sins.

We are reminded of this washing of water and the Word whenever we hear the words of Absolution from the pastor. Standing in the stead of the Christ, the minister pronounces to all of us who with humble hearts confess our sins, and seek with the help of the Holy Ghost to be granted to live a righteous life, the forgiveness of our sins. He absolves us of our sins which we confess before Him by the command and in the stead of the Lord + Jesus. The minister reminds us that we have been baptized, and that our sins, which are many, have been washed away by the Blood of the Lamb of God.

And it is our Lord’s Blood, along with our Lord’s Body, which we also drink and eat under the wine and bread for the remission of our sins. At this altar we receive our Lord’s true and substantial Body and Blood under the bread and wine for the remission of our sins. We remember and proclaim His death until He comes. To remember and proclaim His death does just mean remembering the historical events of His suffering, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. It also means that we trust and believe in these things. We place our faith in what these historical events grant us. We remember and proclaim that by our Lord’s sacrifice we have not only forgiveness of our sins, but also eternal life and salvation. When we eat and drink our Lord’s Body and Blood, we believe that the bread and wine which we eat and drink actually do offer what they promise: forgiveness of sins.

Therefore, my dear friends, let us celebrate and give thanks to Saint Mary Magdalene today. For she gives us an example of repentance and thanksgiving for that repentance to the Lord + Jesus. Let us follow her example and humbly confess our sins, live in repentance, and give thanks to the Lord + Jesus that He has forgiven not only St. Mary of Magdalene’s sins, which were many, but has also forgiven the many sins and trespasses that we have been burdened with all our lives. May the Lord God Almighty grant us all who humbly confess our sins and seek after righteousness with the help of the Holy Ghost forgiveness, life, and salvation. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

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Beware of False Prophets

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My dear friends, the last time we were together you heard a sermon from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, from the fifth chapter of the Apostle and Evangelist St. Matthew’s Gospel. Today, we get to hear a sermon from the end of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount from the seventh chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew. Our Lord + Jesus tells us to “beware of false prophets.” How do we know someone is a false prophet? Our Lord tells us that we will know them by their fruits. That is, we will know a false prophet by his word. What he preaches, and what he does not preach against.

In the Old Testament, a false prophet was determined by whether or not his prophecy came true. If he prophesied that there would be rain, and there was not, he was a false prophet. Many false prophets lived during the time of the Prophet Elijah, who prayed that there would be no rain and it did not rain for three years. Many false prophets tried to contradict his prophecy. The same was true during the time of the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. They prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the impending exile into the land of Babylon on account of the unbelief of the Jews. Many false prophets tried to prophesy that there would be peace. But there was no peace in the end.

The false prophets in the time of Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, all led those who listened to them into a false sense of peace and comfort. The people wanted to hear these things, for they ignored the preaching of the law by the true prophets. They did not want to believe there would be destruction and drought. The false prophets prophesied to them what their itching ears desired to hear. They told them exactly what they wanted to hear. For the people’s unbelief did not want to hear the truth. They did not want to repent of their sins. They wanted to remain in their unbelief, manifest sinning, and false idolatry. They worshiped false gods, and listened to false prophets. For bad trees only produce bad fruit.

The true prophets preached the truth of what the Lord God desired the people to hear. And the true prophets endured exile, hatred, and imprisonment. Some of them even were killed on account of what they prophesied. The people hated to hear what the Lord God had to say so much that they silenced the true prophets once and for all.

But the Word of the Lord endures forever. The truth that He desires to be preached and prophesied will not remain silent. A good tree can only produce good fruit. His Word will go forth into those hearts which will receive it. The Epistle reading for today from St. Paul’s epistle to the Church at Rome makes it plain to us. We either live according to the flesh, or we live according to the Spirit. Living according to the flesh is the equivalent of letting our Old Adam have free reign in our lives.

The Old Adam—our sinful flesh—does not want us to hear God’s Word. It does not want us to hallow the Lord God’s Name. It does not want the Spirit to change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. It rejects the Word of the Lord God. The Old Adam rejects the Law of God which teaches that it cannot save itself by its works. The Old Adam clings to its works trying to find some foothold with which it can prop itself up in pride over accomplishing some good thing. It rejects the notion that it is corrupt from conception, that no good thing can come from it. The Old Adam rejects the notion that it is a bad tree from which no good fruit can come. And since the Old Adam rejects the Law, it also rejects the Gospel, for if it clings to its works as a means of its salvation, it cannot have any room for the true source of salvation in the works and merits of the Lord + Jesus, the Christ, alone. The Old Adam will continue to listen to false prophets.

This is why the Holy Ghost continues to send out to us faithful pastors and ministers to preach the true Word of the Lord God. For by the pure preaching of the Word of the Lord God and the right administration of the Blessed Sacraments the Holy Ghost works to change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. He works to destroy the Old Adam and create in us a New Adam. He works to turn us from bad trees that produce bad fruit into good trees that produce good fruit. As St. Paul tells the Church at Rome, He turns us from flesh into Spirit. He fills us with His life-giving Spirit so that we no longer wish to entertain the falsehoods of the Old Adam, but desire to listen to the pure and true preaching of the Lord God.

This is why, my dear friends, we must beware of false prophets. For, false prophets—false preachers—do not lead us into the truth. Their works are easily seen. Their fruits are readily visible. For they preach what the world wants to hear. They are praised by men and exalted by the world. They teach not the truth but the lies of the world. They spread the lies of the devil. Our Lord + Jesus would have us preach repentance toward the forgiveness of sins. False prophets and preachers preach that we are basically good people, that we need no repentance. They preach that what the Lord God condemns, He has not in fact condemned but embraced. These false preachers lead men down the pathway into Hell. Just as the false prophets of the Old Testament preached peace when there is no peace, just as they preached there was no cause for concern or repentance, the false preachers of today do the same thing.

Therefore, my dear friends, let us beware of false prophets. We can know them by their fruits. False prophets prop up sinners in their sinfulness, they prop up unbelievers in their unbelief. True prophets preach the Law into our ears so that the Holy Ghost can work through the Law to change their heart of flesh into a heart of spirit; so that He can change their heart of stone into a heart of flesh, and thereby they can cling in faith not to their own works, but to the works and merits of the one and only Savior of the world, the Lord + Jesus, the Christ. True prophets always point us to the Christ and to His works of redemption for us. They point us to the cross of our Lord + Jesus. They point us to the fulfillment of the Law of the Lord God by the Lord + Jesus, and to His atoning sacrifice upon the tree of the holy cross. For this is the Word that our Lord + Jesus would have us hear, for it is the Word that leads us into salvation.

And this is how the Lord + Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount. He reminds His hearers that everyone that hears His Word and does them is like a wise man that built his house upon a rock. True preachers lead us to build our house upon the firm Rock of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ alone. They lead us away from the sinking sand of false doctrine and idolatry. True preachers produce the fruit of faith in the Lord + Jesus. False preachers produce the fruit of faith in our own virtue, pride, and works. Let us beware of false prophets for they will lead us down the path to the fires of Hell.

Let us instead hear the true preachers who preach into our ears that we are saved by the works and merits of the Christ alone. His tree of the perfect fulfilling of the Law and His sacrificial ransom for us on the tree of the holy cross produces the fruit of faith in all those who do not resist the Holy Ghost, but hear the Word of the Lord God and have Him produce the fruit of faith in us, so that our hearts of sinful flesh are turned into hearts of spirit and life. May the Lord Almighty continue to work in us to bring us into the truth and lead us into the gates of Heaven. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

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Ye Have Heard That It Was Said

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My dearly beloved, we can in no wise be saved by our keeping of the Law. But neither can we do away with the Law as our society wishes to do. The society in which we live really has no use for the Law. A spirit of antinomianism pervades our society. People are taught that they can do whatever they feel like doing, and there will be no consequences. This philosophy is usually tied in some way to love. The concept of love has become for our society allowing people to do what they want. If you love someone, let them be and do whatever it is that they want to be or do. To actually put forth requirements and conditions is not considered to be love. It is unloving, according to our society, to tell someone that they must obey certain rules and regulations. This is the spirit of antinomianism that exists in our society.

The fulfillment of the Law of God, however, requires love. Love is at the very center of the fulfillment of the Law. Love for both the Lord God and for our neighbor. We cannot keep the Law without love. But it is love that requires obedience to the Commandments not doing whatever we feel is right in our own hearts.

Consider for a moment each of the Ten Commandments with me: In the First Commandment we are fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Loving the Lord God alone is at the heart of the very first Commandment. All the other commands are just like it. We should fear and love God so that we may not curse, swear, use witchcraft, lie, or deceive by His Name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. We should fear and love God that we may not despise our parents and masters, nor provoke them to anger, but give them honor, serve and obey them, and hold them in love and esteem. We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need. We should fear and love God that we may lead a chaste and decent life in word and deed, and each love and honor his spouse. We should fear and love God that we may not take our neighbor’s money or goods, not get them by false ware and dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and business. We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, nor defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything. We should fear and love God that we may not craftily seek to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, nor obtain it by a show of right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it. We should fear and love God that we may not estrange, force, or entice away from our neighbor his wife, servants, or cattle, but urge them to stay and do their duty.

At the heart of every Commandment is love, but love that is obedient to the Law of God. True love is doing what someone else wants, and leaving your own desires and will out of it. The Commandments require our love of God and our neighbor. We love the Lord God by doing what He wants us to do. We love our neighbor by doing what is good for them and not for us. We love our spouse by doing what they want, and not what we want. We love our fellowman by doing for them and not for ourselves. This is completely opposite to the concept of love in our society. Love for this world is doing whatever one wants and everyone else nodding along with it. And if they do not agree with what we want then they are being unloving. True love requires sacrifice of one’s self. It looks to the benefit of another, and not to our own benefit, that is, what we get out of it.

Part of the problem is that our society thinks that they are all basically good people. That there is no inherent corruption in them from which they can in no wise set themselves free. This again is tied to the rampant antinomianism in our society. This concept that we do not need the Law. If people are basically good, they do not need the Law. They do not need to be rescued from the hell of fire. This has led to people pushing the envelope even further. Not only are they basically good, but everything they do, no matter how evil it may be in the Lord God’s eyes, is basically good. A person can do whatever he wants and there are no repercussions, because to do so would be unloving. This is the society in which we live. A society that has no use for the Law of God.

In essence, it is not really that different from the society in which our Lord + Jesus lived. The scribes and the Pharisees had reduced the Law down to its basic tenets. If you did not openly bow down to another god, or make an image of wood or stone, you had kept the First Commandment. If you did not commit theft or robbery, you had kept the Seventh Commandment. If you did not cheat on your spouse, you had obeyed the Sixth Commandment. And, if you had not killed someone, you had kept the Fifth Commandment, and so on. In diligently obeying the outward tenets of the Law, the scribes and Pharisees were considered righteous by all the people. By keeping the Law in this way, they were free from the outward penalties that came with breaking the Law of God. They would not face the wrath of man. But they were not free from the requirements that the Lord God had placed upon the Law. They were not free from the wrath of the Lord God. What had been lost was the minutia of the requirements of the Law. It is this that our Lord + Jesus points out to the people who had gathered to hear Him preach the Sermon on the Mount. Man may be appeased by your outward keeping of the Law of God, but the Lord God was not appeased by it.

Murder was not just killing someone. Murder also involves hatred for your fellowman. Even calling them hurtful names is murder. “Raca” is an insult that implies someone is “empty-headed.” “Thou fool” is the same as calling them a moron, for that is what the Greek word literally means. What our Lord + Jesus is telling those on the Mount is that no one is righteous. We may not have lifted our hands to murder someone, but we have all called someone else “empty-headed” or a “fool” whether justified in our own minds or not. We have all said hurtful words toward our neighbor. We have not shown them love. Nor have we shown love for the Lord God Who created our neighbor. No one is righteous, no not one. Even these small infractions anger the Lord God. No one will escape the fire of hell if even these things are not kept.

What our Lord has done is make the Law of God impossible to keep. If no one can keep the Law of God and be saved, how can anyone inherit eternal life? How will anyone enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? We cannot by our keeping of the Law. If we rely on our own righteousness, we will be lost. We will be condemned.

But even though our society, and we ourselves, may be without true love for our neighbor, our Lord + Jesus is full of sacrificial love for us, and all mankind. It is a foreshadowing of things to come that our Lord + Jesus discusses the scribes and Pharisees and their keeping of the Fifth Commandment. For it would be them who would literally murder the Lord + Jesus on the tree of the holy cross. They would charge Him with false charges, and haul Him before Pontius Pilate all so that they could hang Him on a tree to be cursed.

St. Paul talks about this in the Epistle to the Church at Rome. We who have been baptized, have been baptized into the death of the Lord + Jesus. His innocent suffering and death washes over our sins. Our sins are covered by His Blood—by the blood of the Lamb of God. This is why we live daily in our Holy Baptism. Why we rise each new day and make the sign of the cross—the sign of our Holy Baptism—and why we go to bed each night with that same sign. For by it we daily remind ourselves that not only are we poor, miserable sinners, who fail miserably at our keeping of the Law; not only do we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, and love the Lord God above all else, but we have also died to sin. Through Holy Baptism we have died with the Christ, and been buried with Him in the grave, so that just as He is risen from the dead, we too, are risen again from the first death.

We who were dead in our sins and trespasses, are now alive again in Christ + Jesus. When we daily confess in all contrition and sorrow that we are sinners, we remain in our Holy Baptism. If we become puffed up with pride in our keeping of the Law, or rely on our own righteousness, as the scribes and Pharisees did, our baptism does us no good. For we are no longer placing our faith and trust in the Lord + Jesus, but are looking at our own love and good works as the means of our salvation.

And this is the warning that our Lord is giving us today. That we do not rely on our love, but on His love for us and all mankind. For His love caused Him to be sacrificed for us on the tree of the holy cross for the remission of our sins. He now gives us to eat and to drink His true and substantial Body and Blood in bread and wine at this altar for the remission of our sins. This meal is an expression of our love for both the Lord God and for each other. For by it we share with one another the sacrifice of our Lord + Jesus which won for us forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation.

Let us therefore, my dearly beloved, love one another as our Lord God has loved us. He has fulfilled the whole will and Law of God for us, so that we may also love one another in truth and in deed. Let us love one another not as the world loves, seeking its own benefits and glory, but let us love as our Lord loved us and gave His life as a ransom for us. For in so doing we show that we fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need. Lord, grant this unto us all. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

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Blessed Is the Fruit of Thy Womb

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My dear friends, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s visit to St. Elisabeth is rife with impossibilities. Neither of them is supposed to be able to be pregnant. One is old and barren; way past the age of being able to bear children. The other is a virgin, so young she has not even “known” a man. And yet, they both are pregnant. Elisabeth is pregnant with perhaps the second most important person of all time: St. John the Baptist, whom our Lord + Jesus calls the greatest of those born of women. The Blessed Virgin May carries in her womb the most important Person ever born: our Lord and Savior, the Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Our Lord has already been conceived. He is only a few days old in the womb. St. John the Baptist is already six months old in the womb. Yet, while they are still in the womb, these two cousins are communicating. The Lord + Jesus is preaching through the voice of St. Mary’s Greeting. And St. John the Baptist is already preparing the way of the Lord. From inside his mother Elisabeth’s womb St. John the Baptist hears the greeting of his Lord’s mother to his own mother and leaps for joy. And through the voice of his mother, being full of the Holy Ghost, prophesies: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb! …Blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord.”

That is obviously true for the Blessed Virgin Mary. She believed what the Lord told her through the angel Gabriel. Indeed, just as the angel said, she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost and the Only-Begotten Son of the Father was conceived in her womb, without the aid of a man, and without violating her virginity. The Blessed Virgin Mary was blessed by giving birth to her own Savior.

St. Elisabeth prophecies concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is blessed for believing that the Word of God is true. Unlike her husband Zacharias, who questioned the angel Gabriel and did not believe that such a thing as a child in his, and his wife’s, old age was something possible, even though the Lord God was proclaiming it to be true. We are also blessed when we believe what God says; when we trust God’s Word. Blessed is he that believes what the Lord has said to him will be accomplished. Of course, we are too often just like Zacharias, unable to believe that the promises of God are for us, and that we already possess them.

Consider what the Lord + Jesus has said to you. He has said: “You are Mine. I gave you My Name when you were baptized into My Name—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I claimed you as My own. I called you My child.” He has also said: “I forgive you all your sins.” He has also said: “Take, eat this is My Body; Drink ye all of it, this is My Blood shed for you, for the remission of all your sins.” He has told us that He is the Vine, and we are the branches when He said, “I am in you, and you are in Me. I am with you always.” He has said: “I love you and I lay down My life for you.” “I have made you My own, and ‘no one shall pluck you from My Hand.’” He has said: “You are my beloved child, perfect and without sin, spotless and blameless and the gates of Hell shall not overcome you on account of what I have done for you.” But, we too often either doubt these words, or worse, we gloss over them as if they are just words on a page and have no real meaning for us and for our lives. These are the promises that our Lord + Jesus would have us hear. These are the promises that are impossible, but the Lord God makes them possible, just as He gave children to two women who should not be pregnant by all reason and science.

If He can make such things possible; give a child to a barren woman and a child to a virgin, then He can fulfill His promises to you. Your sins have been paid. You do have salvation. You will inherit Heaven and an eternal life with all the saints and angels while possessing a new and glorious body in the day of the resurrection of all the dead. These are the words that are proclaimed to you. Believe them! They are true. They are meant for your ears. Just as the Blessed Virgin Mary’s greeting was meant for the ears of St. John the Baptist, which caused him to leap for joy in the womb of His mother St. Elisabeth. The Blessed Virgin Mary even ran with haste to give that greeting, just as the Holy Ghost comes to us with haste to take away our hard heart and give us a heart of faith that believes on the Lord + Jesus and all that He has done for us.

What is even more impossible than two women who should not be able to be pregnant, is who these two women are. Neither one is of any great importance. They were not queens or princesses. They were not rich or famous. They were unknowns. They were common women. St. Elisabeth was the wife of a priest, and the Blessed Virgin Mary was a simple handmaiden. But, our Lord chooses the weak and the lowly of this world to perform His great marvels and wonders. He chooses the impossible to do what only He can make possible.

So too, are the places of His birth and where He grew up. Bethlehem and Nazareth were backwater villages of no reputation, no strategic value, no abundance of natural resources. And yet, today there are scarcely any places so famous. The Virgin Mary and St. Elisabeth were nobodies. But God elevated them to a great position. Countless women and girls bear their names today. Thousands upon thousands have called St. Mary blessed for the Savior Whom she bore. So too, does our Lord God notice us and make us worthy on account of the works and merits of His Beloved Only-Begotten Son. We are also nobody of any importance, just like St. Mary and St. Elisabeth. However, the Lord God Who is not far from us, Who is present with us at all times in His Word, loves and knows us so closely and personally that every hair on our head is counted. He notices us. He is interested in us. He cares for us. He gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation on account of His Son. And, His angels rejoice over our repentance and faith. They leap for joy. His words of comfort and promise to us are not empty vanities or mindless flattery. They are words that are, and will be, fulfilled, just as sure as the barren woman bore a son, and the Virgin bore a Son.

Therefore, my dear friends, let us give thanks on this day of the festival of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for she believed that which was spoken of her, and she went with haste to her relative Elisabeth in the hill country. She confirmed the Word of the Lord God even further, saying that the fruit of womb of the Blessed Virgin is blessed. Our Lord + Jesus, the fruit of her womb, is blessed, and He in turn blesses us with forgiveness, life, and salvation. For He does not choose the high and mighty, the rich and famous, but He chooses a lowly handmaiden, and a barren woman to both prepare the way of the Lord and be that Way to salvation from sin and death. This means that He chooses even us poor, miserable sinners. For in contrition and faith we cling to Him and His promises of life and salvation. Let us continue to cling to Him in faith, and He will exalt us to the gates of Heaven in due time. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

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