Today’s readings: 2 Samuel 7, 1-5.8-12.14.16; Romans 16, 25-27; Luke 1,26-38
The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago and the Christmas we are about to celebrate are intimately connected. The first marks God’s entering history, becoming part of the humanity He created and subjecting Himself to the processes of time and change. The second should mark God’s entering our life, becoming part of our personal history. If this second advent of God fails to occur, it would be almost futile to celebrate the first.
We have two Scripture narratives today that portray two lives – King David and Mary. They both stand for an adoring heart, the inner sanctuary we all are called to be where God can dwell and from where He can still shower His love on humanity and the world. There is still so much love in the world which is undoubtedly stronger than all that is shattering. This love is proof of the truth of God’s embrace.
From our human standpoint, God’s presence is not evident, and many a time we are in a struggle alternating between doubt and belief. Today’s gospel narrative of Mary being visited by an angel in human form and receiving precise instructions from the Lord sounds very unreal for our imagination and leaves much to be read in between the lines. Mary’s instant and unequivocal response sounds too simplified for our way of connecting with God.
I am sure it took Mary quite some time to realise what was happening in her life. But her deep relationship with God was gradually suggesting to her what was God’s calling. It is how God guides us, enlightens us, as long as there is the internal disposition to listen and the reasonableness to discern that voice of His. It is the same story with David, who had his own plans to build a temple for God but through Nathan was guided towards God’s own plans.
This is how the life of the Spirit unfolds. There is no magic, no automatisms, no instant transformations. It is the internal disposition to listen that makes all the difference. It is by investing more in the life of the Spirit that we can give birth to God’s spirit and let God impact more on the world around us. Mary’s “I am the handmaid of the Lord” is not simply a statement but a lifestyle. She was a living sanctuary and the power of the Most High could transpire from her.
Particularly in the times we are living now, we need to feel the embrace of this power, which is not imposing but which enhances in us the goodness, the truth and the beauty that ultimately can heal the world. The problem of our age is not atheism or secularisation, it is not that people are materialists or hedonists, it is not that people are turning away from God and leaving the churches.
Our problem is deeper than that. Often we have no time and disposition to listen, and we end up being guided by a cacophony of noises that bury our interiority and transform us in routine robots, even if artificially intelligent. With such a life, we never come to know ourselves and end up even escaping our true self and ignoring our inner cry for help.
Our personal interiority, as shown today in David and Mary, is the key to our inner peace. There is no man-made temple that can contain the Lord’s presence, but our heart can. The Jesus of the gospels, the one born in Bethlehem, is not a historical figure whose memory is guarded in a book. His power still reaches out to our hunger for salvation. If he is not proclaimed as saviour, then he is dead.
Christmas is the narrative of how the heart of God, alien to any worldly logic, emptied itself out of love. Out of love and through us, God can be experienced as close to home, warming the heart of the world and healing the wounds of humanity.