The icon of the Holy Family of Divine Will of Unity and Peace inlaid with relics from the Basilica of the Annunciation in
Nazareth. Photo: CNS The Sunday Gospel
Children are counting down the days. Only 10 more days till Christmas. I am really taken by the television commercial where the little boy keeps asking “Will he really come?” Of course, we think that it refers to Santa Claus. But no, it is Grandad. “I knew you would come.”
It’s a story of expectation and joy, a story of Advent and Christmas.
“Will he really come?” Many Jewish children must have asked that question as their elders recalled the story of the original fall and the promise that someone would come. Immediately after the fall, God told the devil that there would be a woman whose offspring would crush the head of evil.
An unknown village for migrant workers employed in one of Herod’s great building schemes”
Years, centuries, went by but the story of hope was passed on from one generation to the next. The great prophet, Isaiah, spoke of a time of peace and reconciliation between traditional enemies, the wolf and the lamb would lie down together and a little child would lead them. Furthermore, this child would be of the stock of Jesse, in other words of the line of David. David was the shepherd boy who became the king who united the twelve tribes of Israel.
“Will he really come? When will he come?” The story continued to be passed on. Surely, when it would eventually happen it would be with important people in important places.
But the God of surprises acted differently. The news of great joy was announced in Nazareth! An unknown village for migrant workers employed in one of Herod’s great building schemes. Nazareth, never even mentioned in the writings we call the Old Testament. And the person to whom the message of motherhood was announced was the most unlikely person, a consecrated virgin! “How can this come about since I am a virgin?” She is told, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow.” The Jewish holy books frequently spoke of a cloud or shadow over a holy place indicating the presence of God. We still have the gesture at Mass, when the celebrant’s hands overshadow the bread and wine while invoking the power of the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
Luke’s Gospel relates the annunciation of the angel to Mary while Matthew, whose Gospel we read today, recalls the predicament of Joseph as he knew that he could not have been the father of this child of Mary to whom he was betrothed. By Jewish law he was bound to make this known but before he could do so, he too received an annunciation from an angel. “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home for she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit.”
Both writers, Luke who was a physician, and Matthew, went out of their way to write unequivocally of the virginity of Mary and the non-involvement of Joseph. Surely, they were aware that it would raise medical or scientific questions but the role of the Holy Spirit and the incarnation of the Son of God are beyond the scope of science. The same is true of the Resurrection of Jesus and the transubstantiation of the Eucharist. Scientific analysis does not deal with the supernatural.
Conception
The virginal conception is a story of divine intervention because the child of Mary is a person who already existed. “In the beginning was the word…and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Joseph could not have fathered a person who already existed. St Augustine marvellously summed up the theological arguments thus: “If a God had to be born, he could only be born of a virgin and if a virgin had to give birth, she could only give birth to a God.”
René Laurentin, a great Marian scholar, made the comment that those who wanted to eliminate the virginity of Mary have generally, at the same time, and to the same degree, lost sight of the divinity of Jesus. Many people today are so set with their own agenda that they overlook the presence of the Holy Spirit in the virgin birth.
“Will he really come…are you sure he will come?” asks the little boy on the television.
The answer is that he has come 2,000 years ago and we will celebrate his birth on Christmas Day. But that’s not all. The good news is that he continues to come to us, every day in fact. In today’s first reading the prophet Isaiah gives encouraging news to King Ahaz. “The maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Emmanuel, a name which means God-is-with-us”.
The artist, Holman Hunt, did several paintings of Jesus holding a lamp in one hand and knocking on a door with the other hand. An unusual feature is that there is no handle on the outside. It has to be opened from inside.
“Will he really come?” Yes, he has come and he wants to come to us each day. We have to open the door, especially through time for reflection and prayer. Make sure that amidst all the bustle of Christmas, you will find the quietness where you will hear his knocking.
Prayer
The divine child to whom Mary gave birth is the fulfilment of every hope, expectation and need.
Jesus-Emmanuel is the presence of God to our desert emptiness, power in our weakness, bread to our hunger, water to our thirst, companion to our loneliness, forgiveness to our sins, and eternal life in our dying.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Fr Silvester O’Flynn’s Gospel Reflections and Prayers is available to purchase at Columba Books.