The wait is almost over
This week’s gospel story from Luke is one of the most beautiful and touching, building up to and preparing us for the long-awaited birth of Jesus the messiah. If you have ever visited the Vatican Museum, you may have seen a lovely Advent image of the pregnant Mary, wearing a long pink dress.
It’s an image that is very meaningful as we await Christmas. In fact, there aren’t too many similar images of Mary, carrying Jesus inside her body. We have come to honour her under many titles down the ages, but the earliest one was ‘Theotokos’, a Greek word which means God-bearer. Mary is the preeminent God-bearer, bearing for us in time the One who was begotten in eternity.
God could only become human in Jesus because Mary freely said ‘Yes’ at the time of the Annunciation. This was to lead her down a path that was far from easy. We can imagine how much Mary needed the empathy, encouragement and inspiration. The Visitation enabled her to be with a relative who understood what was happening to her, and who was part way through her own pregnancy.
Mary’s relief would have been deepened in that shared moment when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and the babe in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy. As Elizabeth blessed her, Mary found in this meeting support and strength to deal with the difficulties that came with the role of being a God-bearer.
And so on the eve of Christmas, we see in Mary what we too are invited to become: God-bearers in our own day. We can learn so much from this woman who was totally faithful, prayerful and open to the leadings of God. As for her, our lives, in their own way, take us on just as long and arduous journey. We go through patches of trouble and difficulty when it’s hard to keep trusting, and persevering. Then, at other times God provides us with moments of support and strengthening.
To be a God-bearer is a challenge. We are called to bear Jesus in such a way that others find him in our daily lives, and especially in the way we love people. As Teresa of Avila said: ‘Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours’. Each of us bears some part of the image of God inside of us.
God wants to send us forth like Mary to tell the good news of the gospel. As it’s almost Christmas, perhaps now is the time to think of ourselves as an inn keeper, as the person who decides whether to allow Jesus in, so that he might be enabled to come to birth anew in us.
Sue Kane
Feature image: Peter Paul Rubens – Annunciation Web Gallery of Art.
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