We have come to the end of the second week of Advent. All week long we’ve looked, mused if you will, on Mary and visitations of God to her. I have often thought that we don’t understand God’s heart for people until we see how he sent his Son into the world for us through the Virgin Mary. It makes me wonder, "All of this is in the eternal council, or plan of God - just what was God thinking? Remember how the Apostle John opened his Gospel?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was
made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men... The true light,
which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not
know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory
as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)
When we think about Advent, we come back to the most basic
of things – Jesus’ coming:
Jesus – the Word in the beginning of all things with God.
Jesus – Life and Light, the true Light that shines to give Life.
Jesus – Creator and Redeemer who came to a people who could not see who he was.
Jesus – Creator and Redeemer who some received, believed in his name, Lord.
Jesus – who gives those who receive him, and believe in him, the right to become
children of God.
We do not gain this right of adoption because we are born
into the right family, or because we made a wise choice while others did not,
but because of God’s gracious work – his glorious work in our hearts that calls
us by grace and truth to come to him – into the Church.
I “muse”, or think deeply about our individuality and our
communal togetherness in the church. Mary
became the ark in which Jesus was carried.
After a week of musing on Mary’s role in the divine plan of God’s
redemption, I wanted to help us “to see”, as Jesus often challenged his listeners
to do. I wanted to see beyond the story to what God was doing in sending his Son into the world? What did God do in sending his
Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary?
In 1100 a.d., a monk off the coast of France, whose name
was Isaac of Stella, wrote a beautiful treatise on Jesus, the Son of God, Mary,
and the Church. I invite you to think
with me:
“The
Son of God is the first-born of many brothers. Although by nature he is the
only-begotten, by grace he has joined many to himself and made them one with
him. For to those who receive him he has given the power to become the
sons of God.
He
became the Son of man and made many men sons of God, uniting them to himself by
his love and power, so that they became as one. In themselves they are many by
reason of their human descent, but in him they are one by divine rebirth. The
whole Christ and the unique Christ—the body and the head—are one: one because
born of the same God in heaven, and of the same mother on earth. They are many
sons, yet one son. Head and members are one son, yet, many sons; in the same
way, Mary and the Church are one mother, yet more than one mother; one virgin,
yet more than one virgin.
Both
are mothers, both are virgins. Each conceives of the same Spirit, without
concupiscence. Each gives birth to a child of God the Father, without sin.
Without any sin, Mary gave birth to Christ the head for the sake of his body.
By the forgiveness of every sin, the Church gave birth to the body, for the
sake of its head. Each is Christ’s mother, but neither gives birth to the whole
Christ without the cooperation of the other.
In
the inspired Scriptures, what is said in a universal sense of the virgin
mother, the Church, is understood in an individual sense of the Virgin Mary,
and what is said in a particular sense of the virgin mother Mary is rightly
understood in a general sense of the virgin mother, the Church. When either is
spoken of, the meaning can be understood of both, almost without qualification.
In
a way, every Christian is also believed to be a bride of God’s Word, a mother
of Christ, his daughter and sister, at once virginal and fruitful. These words
are used in a universal sense of the Church, in a special sense of Mary, in a
particular sense of the individual Christian. They are used by God’s Wisdom in
person, the Word of the Father.
This
is why Scripture says: I will dwell in the inheritance of the Lord. The
Lord’s inheritance is, in a general sense, the Church; in a special sense,
Mary; in an individual sense, the Christian. Christ dwelt for nine months in
the tabernacle of Mary’s womb. He dwells until the end of the ages in the
tabernacle of the Church’s faith. He will dwell forever in the knowledge and
love of each faithful soul.
Here is our Advent Preparer…the one who prepared the way of
the Lord. God came to Mary and gave her
his grace and mercy to accept the role he had for her. If we are to enter into the joy of Jesus we
must learn to say “yes” to God in everything he gives us – whether we expected
it or not. We will never know, until
eternity, how God used the things in our lives – even the difficult things, to
prepare for his coming into our world, our lives today.
“…the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to
be born will be called holy—the Son of God… And Mary said, “Behold, I am the
servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
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