Mary who shows up in today’s gospel lesson has several nicknames or official titles. She’s often referred as Our Lady which is a title of honor, respect, and veneration. You’ve probably heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Walsingham, or Our Lady of Lourdes. In our town, we have a Roman Catholic parish called “Our Lady of the Holy Angels.” This Mary, the mother of Jesus does have the official title for her. It’s never mentioned anywhere in the Bible, but the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus in 431 reflected on Elizabeth’s saying in today’s gospel lesson, “...why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (Luke 1:43) and gave Mary the title, “Mother of God.” In Greek, it is ‘Theotokos” which literally means, “God-bearer.”
This official title of Mary is more about Jesus than Mary herself. It is to emphasize Jesus’s divinity and humanity. Let’s think about God having a mother, God being conceived in the virgin’s womb, totally depending God’s life on her. To capture this mystery we traditionally call “incarnation,” the title that the Church came up with is Mary the Mother of God. On the contrary, there was another group of Christians who couldn't accept this paradoxical nature of Jesus as being fully human and fully divine. The term they came up with is much easier to understand, which is “Mother of Christ.” This term sounds more logical and more reasonable because Mary is indeed the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah or the Christ. But this doesn't capture the mystery of the incarnation at all. This is just like saying my mom, Sara being called “mother of a priest.” Which doesn’t mean much to anyone. While the Church’s official title, “Theotokos,’ ‘God-bearer,’ or ‘Mother of God’ only belongs to Mary. ‘Mother of Christ’ doesn’t. It actually applies to all of us. I might sound a bit off to suggest this since some of us cannot be physiologically mothers but yes, all of us are called to be mothers of Christ. I’m actually introducing the 15 centuries old theological idea that the Church Fathers like St Augustine or St Francis talked about. So this isn’t something completely new. It’s just rarely talked about, and it is something that I would like all of us to take away while we’re still in this holy season of Advent. Let us look at the collect for today in which we can find this rich theological symbol of us being mothers of Christ. “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.” God’s daily visitation purifies our conscience. And there’s a reason for this, that Jesus at his coming may find in us a mansion, a room prepared for himself. In other words, this prayer invites us to become an innkeeper who gets to make a decision whether to take Jesus in or not. I want us to go deeper than being an innkeeper that whether we want to conceive Jesus in us and give birth to Jesus. Having a mansion in us or a room in us for Jesus is to conceive Jesus in our spiritual womb, the deepest place of the soul. I believe this maternal language speaks more to some of you who have been mothers, yet this spiritual vocation to be mothers of Christ is open to all. The 3rd century theologian, Origen of Alexandria makes a remark on us being mothers of Christ, “What use would it be to me that Christ was born once of Mary in Bethlehem if he were not born of faith in my soul too?” (Mary: Mirror of the Church, Raniero Cantalamessa, p. 68) The 7th century Eastern Church Father, St Maximus the Confessor also says something similar, “Christ is always mystically born in the soul by taking flesh from those who are saved and making the soul a virgin mother.” (Ibid., p. 69) So if I rephrase the collect for today based on this rich image of us being called to be mothers of Christ, it’s something like “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in our souls the spiritual womb prepared for himself.” In this sense, we are imitating Mary. Like Mary, we conceive Jesus and bring him forth though not exactly in the same way she did but rather analogically, neither completely identical nor absolutely incomparable. And in this Advent season which will end in about two days, we want to join Mary’s joy over having God in her womb as mothers of Christ. Let’s listen to her song, which is known as the Magnificat. This time, let’s listen to the Prayer Book version on page 65, which seems to be a better translation: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, * and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded * the lowliness of his handmaiden. For behold from henceforth * all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me, * and holy is his Name. And his mercy is on them that fear him * throughout all generations. He hath showed strength with his arm; * he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, * and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he hath sent empty away. He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, * as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.” In this Song of Mary, the word “magnify” comes up twice. And how it is used is two-way. Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord, and the Lord who is might magnifies her. What this two-way, mutual magnifying of each other tells us is that Mary’s conception of Jesus is consensual. She could’ve said no to God coming into her womb, yet she said yes with her deep faith in God and courage. So Mary’s joy that we want to join begins with the question whether you really want to conceive Jesus and give birth to him. If you do consent to this, your soul magnifies, enlarges, and feeds Jesus in you as well as Jesus magnifies, enlarges, and feeds you. Your belly will get bigger as Jesus in you will grow bigger. And just like Elizabeth, you will feel Christ in you as your spiritual womb leaps for joy! Now this becoming of mothers of Christ might sound very metaphorical. But this is the image of ourselves that we would like to have, especially in this season of Advent. This magnifying mutual work of God and mothers of Christ is really about being compassionate to one another in this darkest season of the year. Conceiving Christ in our spiritual womb is our commitment to be with those who suffer. Bringing forth Christ is our act of love for them. The Hebrew word for a womb is rechem. When it becomes plural, rahamim, its meaning changes to mercy or compassion. When all of us devote ourselves to be mothers of Christ, bringing together our spiritual wombs for Christ, we bring forth compassion to the world. My friends, on the first Sunday of Advent, we focused on being attentive to Jesus who walks into our lives, especially through the Holy Eucharist, his body and blood, planting the seed in our souls. On the second Sunday of Advent, we talked about facing and recognizing what’s scarce, high, crooked, and rough in our hearts. On the third Sunday of Advent, we heard Jesus as the true source of our joy who clears what is clogged, burns what needs to be gone, and heals and restores what is wounded in your hearts. Today on this last Sunday of Advent, we are to conceive Jesus in our spiritual wombs and wait to bring him forth in the place where suffering seems to prevail. And we sing, “Blessed art thou amongst women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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