Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Saturday, Dec 12, 2010

[ Eve of Advent IV in the Christian Kalendar ]

"Look, the young woman shall conceive and
bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel"

The Gospel called “Matthew”, chapter 1


[ The full text can be found here: http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv4_RCL.html ]


If you are wanting to express the majestic wonder of human persons fully alive, you pull out all the stops! “Matthew” was not able to let go enough, alas. But “Luke” – now whoever pulled together that telling of the story knew how to pull out all the stops!

On this last Sunday of Advent, we are brought back to the conception by Mary of her son. We hear that it is a unique child, a creation of human (Mary) and the Divine (Holy Spirit).

So when we come to the “manger” as we celebrate the Incarnation of Jesus on December 25th, revel in the wonder and beauty and mystery of the Story, certainly. Then let it slowly dissolve before your inner eye. Wonder at the message, as Joseph did from that of the angel. Remember all the fears we each have about opening ourselves in vulnerability and trust to that little fleeting glimpse we get now and then of the sheer ecstasy of flinging ourselves into the vast possibilities of love, of abandonment to generosity, of all that Jesus (and many great teachers of Wisdom) called being “born of the Spirit”.

We are being invited to Come Alive. Invited not to be afraid. The Divine One – that great mystery of Life which we can only barely begin to describe – waits to be born from and in each of us ….. moment by moment, day by day, year by year. Emmanuel: “God” with us. What a Journey if we can throw ourselves into it!

O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud? Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem. 
Filiae Ierusalem, quid me admiramini? Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

Virgin of Virgins, how shall this be? for neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after: Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me? the thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.

To be extravagantly human! It is indeed a ….. Divine Mystery. May we all touch it in our Journey.

Brian+