Promises! Promises!
          Everyone's making promises, but what about action? Show me someone who can live up to his or her promises, and I'll be satisfied! Otherwise...don't make me any promises you can't keep!
          Unfulfilled promises...broken promises...singers love to sing about them; dramatists love to explore the heartbreak of them; and we, often enough, are weighed down, burdened by the pain of broken promises, either promises we've broken or promises made to us that others have broken.
          And whether we are someone who basically believes that promises are meant to be kept, who trusts that others will keep their promises, or whether we are someone who doesn't trust, who's been hurt one too many times, who has stopped believing in promises -- such a fundamental distinction in how we view the world and other people and ourselves makes all the difference in the world.
          We can certainly see that distinction in other people. One can have a sense upon meeting a person for the first time whether or not that person is a trusting, open person, or whether he or she is a cautious, wary and protective person. Sometimes, by the grace of God, we can see it in ourselves. Perhaps we can see how we have changed over the years, from someone who did trust at one time, but who quickly learned from too many broken promises not to trust. Or perhaps, by the grace of God, we can see how we have grown from being distrustful and closed-in-on-ourselves to once again (or perhaps for the first time) being someone who believes in the fulfillment of promises, trusting in goodness and love.
          Up to this point, I have been speaking in fairly general terms, about broad characterizations of how people approach others and the world around them...but I would wager that each one of us here could very quickly personalize these generalizations. Each of us has a very personal list of promises kept or broken, of trust held or betrayed, of dreams fulfilled or dreams that still haunt us...
          What if I were to tell you that your most essential expectations, your fondest dreams of life and love and happiness have been fulfilled, long before you and I even came into existence? While you and I were yet a beautiful thought in the mind of God, He made promises to you and to me, and He has kept them. And He has done so through the love and life of a young Jewish girl named Mary, from the town of Nazareth in Galilee.
          God chose to fulfill the promises He has made to each of us through her, because it was through her that the Love of God came into the world and dwelt among us. She, from the very first moment of her existence, was completely open to the love of God; there was nothing in her that would be an obstacle to the fulfillment of God's promises. So when the Angel Gabriel sent from God asked her to be the Mother of God's only Son, she answered, Let it be done to me according to your word.
          But did she keep the fulfillment of God's promises to herself? No, she "set out, proceeding in haste into the hill country, to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's house, and greeted Elizabeth." She carried the fulfillment of God's promises beneath her heart at that moment, and she knew that the Child she bore was the Desire of every heart, the fulfillment of our deepest longings. And she wasted no time in bringing that love, that promise-kept, to her kinswoman, Elizabeth, whom she served with love and devotion.
          Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized her young cousin for who she was - the bearer of the fulfillment of all God's promises, the Mother of the Lord. And just as the Angel Gabriel had greeted her, saying, "Hail, full of grace!" so now, Elizabeth greets her as Blessed because she believed that the Lord's promises to her would be fulfilled. Mary is the one who believes in the fulfillment of God's promises. And through her perfect faith, each of us can now share in the fulfillment of God's promises. Each of us now has a share in the life, the love of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary.
          Remember what I said about each of us having a very personal list of desires, and trusts, and promises, either broken or fulfilled? Well, as the days until Christmas grow ever fewer, each of us is given the faith to look upon the Child born in Bethlehem-Ephrata, and to see in Him, in the Son of Mary, the fulfillment of our every desire, the answer to our long years of questioning and searching.
          Mary believed that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled. Now, through her, each of us can know the fulfillment of all God's promises. We can know Jesus our Lord. He is God's promise, never to be broken.
          I promise.