Blessed "O Antiphon" days and the final prep before Christmas

December 19, 2012
 
Today's blog entry has to encompass two audiences, since your author has been studying a great deal the last few days.  Thanks for your patience.
 
First, let's look at last week's message about the steps of Revelation.  Pope Benedict has already gone to great lengths to show how God's revelation is present in the natural world all around us.  Now he is moving into what we might call Revelation with a capital "R", that is, God showing us Who He Is personally in a way that we can understand, and then calling us into a friendship with Himself.
 

This pillar in honor of the Immaculate Conception offers an
artistic interpretation of the steps and figures of Revelation.
Moses (left) and David (right) both shed light on who the
Messiah of Israel will be.

  The Blessed Virgin Mary brought the Son of God into
the world and sang the praises of God in her Magnificat,
which has been captured in song by
numerous composers.

What that requires is for God to make the first step--every step, actually--and then man to respond.  A tradition Advent chant entitled Rorate Caeli captures humanity's longing and God's rending of the heavens in order to come down to us.

As God's Revelation unfolds over time, human history becomes shaped, transformed, and ordered according to God's plan and design.  That design is one of love that never dismisses human freedom.  We call it "salvation history."  And it's written in the Bible.

By reading the history of the People of Israel in Sacred Scripture, we begin to understand that God's interventions in history are not little occurrences that happen and then fade away.  Part of being in a covenant with God is remembering what He has done in my life.  Celebrating the memory of certain events in salvation history is not just nostalgia; it renders the event present and actual in the life of the believer.  Our relationship with God changes over time, and God's faithfulness becomes more present and real the more we reflect upon it.  Because of His faithfulness, we look to the future with hope.

The pillar in full view.

In yesterday's audience, Pope Benedict highlighted the faith of Mary, Mother of the Lord. 

The angel's greeting to her, Χαιρε in Greek, means "Rejoice!" Whenever that same greeting is used in the Old Testament, it is an expression of joy and consolation at the promised coming of the Messiah.  For Mary and for us, it is a salutation that signals the beginning of the Gospel, the Good News of salvation.

Joy--Mary's joy and our joy--comes from grace, or communion with God.  It is not ephemeral giddiness; it springs from faith.  Faith includes elements of darkness and things that we don't understand.  However, the person who is open to God, like Mary was, comes to accept the divine will even when he or she doesn't understand it, even when it doesn't correspond to an individual's plan, and even when it is a sword that pierces the person's heart.

We all encounter moments of darkness in our walk of faith, as well as moments of light.  Faith keeps us constant through thick and thin--that's why we have to pray for faith!  Belief and trust in God allows us to let go of what we think life ought to be in order to let the Word of God be the lamp unto our feet, the guiding principle of our thoughts and actions.

Annunciation by Fra Angelico.
Image available from http://www.wga.hu/index1.html

From Mary we have not just a model of faith, but we also learn how to put faith into action.  When she heard the angel Gabriel's greeting in the Annunciation, she pondered it.  When the shepherds at Bethlehem told her what they had been told, she kept it in her heart.  When Jesus, at the age of 12, told her that He had to be in the house of His Father, she reflected and pieced together all these events.  She entered into a dialogue with the Word of God in order to see and understand His will so that she could do it.  It is because of her faith that all generations have called and will always call her blessed.

Christmas invites us to live this same humility and faith.  God's glory is manifested in the womb of a virgin and revealed in the poverty of a baby, not in the triumph and power of a king, a famous city, or a sumptuous palace.

God's omnipotence acts in our lives the same way it shone forth in Bethlehem: quietly, in truth and love.

There won't be an audience next week, so I wish all of you the best in these final days of Advent...Veni, veni Emmanuel.  God bless all of you, and Merry Christmas.