By the time many of you read this, Alicia, the kids and I will be well on our way to a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We’ll travel far to see family and we’re grateful to do so. We’ll have a number of goings-on that will surely prove to be simultaneously comical and frustrating. We’ll also loose ourselves in the drama of Christmas. Our three year old daughter, Anya Marie, started packing on December 9th by prepping the cashews and stowing them away in her teddy bear backpack weeks early. The plastic bag of cashews took up the entirety of her luggage because she’s certain that we’ll get hungry on the way to Gram’s. I’m sure, therefore, that we’ll be sufficiently ready for our logistical departure especially with this kind of advent preparation.
Alicia and I, our whole family, want to first wish each of you a very blessed Christmas Season. We will miss you very much for the next twelve days and we look forward to returning at the New Year. With joy and hope regarding everything Christmas is about, we love you very much and we thank you for your love of us. But before Christmas I’d like to share some reflections now, at the end of Advent on this Fourth Sunday.
Honestly, Advent and Christmas are the two Seasons of the Church Year that unsettle me above the rest – even above Holy Week itself. I’m quite uncomfortable at this time each year and as I age, I notice myself becoming all the more unsettled in the Advent story. I’ve become deeply saddened at the sentimentalizing of Christmas and have often wondered what the great prophets would say at our “making ready” for Jesus Christ. You see, at its very least, the entire story of Christmas is a radically subversive plot to inaugurate a new Kingdom and it takes shape in a nationally unnoticed coup de ta by a baby king – Jesus the Lord. If the Christmas plot were not subtle, hidden away, and unknowingly protected by poverty, shepherds, angels, magi, in a stable and through Divine Providence - it would have failed. The Advent Season, at its very least, is a one month long examination of conscience that culminates this Fourth Sunday in the person of Mary. Both of these Seasons are meant to awaken sleepy faith and I always notice the fatigue of my poor faith during this time praying hard that I will not end up disappointing someone like John the Baptist, or worst yet – Jesus Himself. I’m sorry to be such a “downer” right there. I hope I can put that aside and regain your attention and confidence by reflecting on something, someone, who models faith - and that is the person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Mary is the summary, culmination and recapitulation of the entire people of Israel. Israel is the people, chosen and formed by God, to be the means of bringing God’s presence into the entire world - eventually giving birth to the Messiah. I really like that the “chosen people” are not some elite click that closed in on itself (although there was real danger of that happening many times over). Instead, the purpose of this small group of chosen people is to give birth to the living presence of the true God in the world. Therefore, in Mary, we can really see - or read - the entire Old Testament.
Unlike the people of Israel, and also unlike Eve (humankind’s original mother) Mary said to God: “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word” (Lk. 1:38). Paradise (the Garden of Eden) fell away when Eve attempted to determine good and evil for herself which is what originated sin in the world thereby passing sin to all of us. Simply put, when we persons try to author right from wrong for ourselves or predetermine according to our “laws” good from evil - everything falls apart and we ultimately fall apart with it. Mary’s total acceptance of God’s will regains, in Christ, what falls apart in the Garden as well as what was left undone by the people of Israel. When we accept God’s Word into ourselves, His Divine Life takes hold of us, it inseminates us, and we become pregnant and able to bear God’s presence into the world. On the contrary, Eve blocks the Divine Life by doing just the opposite. Contemporary secular atheists (and many Christians for that matter) say this radical acceptance of God’s will into our lives jeopardizes our personhood and decreases our freedom. What do you say?
To conclude, one of the most beautiful images of Mary as the new Eve, the new Israel, the new Temple, the new Ark of the Covenant, etc. is that of Mary as the new Burning Bush. The burning bush Moses encountered in the desert (Ex. 3) is the glorious reality of what happens to God’s creation when God becomes close to us. That is to say, God’s creatures become illuminated, or on fire with Divine Life, but not consumed. Getting close to God for Mary, the burning bush, and for all of us means that we will become illuminated and on fire with Divine Life yet not consumed or reduced to ash. The burning bush is only enhanced and made all the more glorious when God is close to it. Mary’s total acceptance of God’s will, seen by some as the surrendering of her freedom, does not oppress her life but instead it magnifies her life! It glorifies her life! This is why the early Church Fathers say over and over again: “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” This Fourth Week of Advent, with fear and trepidation, the Church concludes a month long examination of conscious. Getting close to God, saying with Mary: “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word” is the means to magnifying our lives. Is that our posture going into the Christmas feast? Is the baby King really the Lord of our life and are we on fire, illuminated and enhanced with the Divine presence? If so, will our families notice God in us when we see them at Christmas and in turn, surrender their will to the Eternal Word of the Father?
-Benjamin Darnell