Scripture: Luke 1:39-56
Journal: Where in your life is God asking you to say “yes” to him? What does that look like?
Reflection:
For many Christians it has perhaps become
commonplace to view Advent as a season of inevitability, a ritual expectation
of the birth of the Son of God, surely, but one that lacks suspense. We already know how the story will turn out,
don’t we? The Holy Family will make it to
Bethlehem; they will find a manger; Jesus will be born; everything will run as
planned and on schedule. Yet it is
worthwhile to recall that Advent celebrates birth, one of the most vulnerable
and human moments, and to remind ourselves that Jesus was an unexpected child:
Mary had a different life planned for herself and Joseph, not to mention
Joseph’s own hopes and dreams for his family.
What must those cold final
months of pregnancy have been like for Mary, away from home and desperate for
shelter? In our still male-centered
world, we may think more of the coming of Jesus than of the worries and
concerns of his mother, who knew a life we often do not admit, one surely full
of confusion about her role as well as dreams and fears for her family’s
well-being and future. Do we give enough
attention in our prayer and celebration to he interior life—this young woman
called by forces she did not fully understand to give birth to a child whose
coming was shrouded in so much mystery?
I am of an age where my
friends and siblings seem to have acquired an incredible fecundity. Not a month goes by without the good news
that one or more of them is expecting.
Pregnancy involves uncertainty, of course, so they are careful not to
make an announcement too soon. Often
they communicate the news subtly. A
friend declines a glass of wine at dinner, sisters start whispering in the
corner at family gatherings, boxes of clothes reappear out of attics and
closets, and suddenly everyone realizes the good news. Each time, though, there is worry, but more
often than not it is the worry of middle-class Americans supported by family,
society, and financial security. It is
not the worry of an unmarried teenager living at subsistence level in a land
under military occupation; it is not that of a woman struggling to avoid public
scandal, yet singing a hymn of hope in an environment more suggestive of its
opposite.
The great German theologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once called Mary’s Magnificat “the most passionate,
the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung,”
not a Christmas carol or a recitation of pious treacle but a “hard, strong,
inexorable song about collapsing thrones and humbled lords of this world, about
the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.” The woman who sang that song was not the
serene and half-asleep royal figure depicted in Western art over the centuries,
but a young woman fully alive in history, whose answer to God had consequences
both long-range and immediate for herself, her family, and the world. Mary’s response, though, is exemplary: she
embraced her new reality and her new child.
In this Advent season, let
us remember and be grateful for the yes Mary gave to that sudden visitor who brought
shocking news. For Mary’s decision
brought life to the world. The child she
bore and reared has changes our fates forever.
Perhaps the joy and gratitude we bring to the new arrivals in our world
give us a starting point for loving Mary’s son. (The Surprise Child by
James T. Keane)
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: I have heard your call, my Lord, and respond
with a yes that arises from the depth of my being. I know that if I follow close to you, nothing
shall be able to separate me from your love. Amen. A Guide to Prayer for
All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job)
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