Wonder and awe at Christmas

Mary knew wonder and awe. In his narrative of the birth of Christ, St. Luke tells us that

Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.

She knew how to "be with" the events that happened to her and around her. We need to learn a lesson from her about how to ponder properly, among other things.Mary sometimes gets a bit sidelined; we’re not sure what to make of all this, so we can sometimes reduce her to a kind of “conduit” through which Jesus appeared on earth for us.But this is not the teaching of the Church.This would be to misunderstand the nature of motherhood in general and of this motherhood in particular. We all know that the mother-child relationship cannot be reduced to kind of passing “functionality” - we certainly do not give birth and then a child has no need for us! The bond between mother and child is physical, emotional, spiritual, and eternal!And it would be unworthy of God to simply use a person, and then sort of discard that person, as if He had no more need of her. This is especially true in the case of the Mother of His Son.Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis reminds us that Christ is not a sealed eternal capsule fallen to earth ready-made from heaven. On the contrary, Christ is the seed of the Word, planted by the Father in the womb of Mary. And Mary is that fertile earth that gave nourishment and growth to the seed of the Word for our sakes, so that we may eventually eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Cross, which is the Eucharist.In fact, “Mary, Mother of God” underlies the whole mystery of our redemption – from the Son’s conception in her womb by the overshadowing Holy Spirit to our own conception in the womb of Mother Church “until Christ be fully formed in us.”Mary cannot ever be anyone other than the Mother of God; everything before the Annunciation prepared her for this role, and she cannot ever stop being the Mother of God!It’s interesting to think that for 30 silent years, the life of the Holy Family must have been very normal; so normal that the locals could not believe Jesus was anyone special, and certainly not a prophet! Certainly not Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe!They didn’t think Mary was particularly special either. But what do we call the mother of a king? “Queen Mother” – loving support for all He does for the Kingdom. Mary is the Queen Mother, who – on earth and in heaven – supports the work of the King.But Mary’s deepest identity is BELIEVER – one who encountered the Word of God, accepted it, assented to it, and never wavered, all the way to the cross and beyond. She is the example for us of complete receptivity to the Word and a ready YES to every breath, every movement of the Holy Spirit.Mary is the living link, historically and mystically, between the mystery of the Incarnation and the mystery of Pentecost – the full mystery of redemption. In her fiat at the outset of the work of redemption, she is both accepting God’s gift of redemption for herself and prefiguring/making possible the act of faith of the whole church yet to come, which is you and me.There is nothing that Mary does without its being undertaken under the impulse of that original and ever-active grace of the Spirit that filled her from the beginning: she is ever "full of grace."Remember the shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem? This grace that filled Mary drove her in haste to the hill country of Judah to help her cousin and also made her sensitive to the needs of the family hosting the wedding feast in Cana. In these two events can be seen the fundamental role of Mary as Christ-Bearer and ready intercessor, who comes to our aid even without our asking! She is, in a sublime and motherly way, attentive to our needs.This is Love.These are the movements of Love.Love wants to be imitated and participated in.Love wants to be united with the Beloved.Love longs for ENCOUNTER, RELATIONSHIP, and UNION.Love understands wonder and awe,and love never misses an opportunity to speak of the Beloved or to pour itself out for the “other.” In a world that has completely distorted the meaning of the word “LOVE,” we need to give ourselves permission to love truly and fully, beginning with SEEING and RECEIVING the self-gift of Love Incarnate in the manger. This Advent, let’s really prepare to encounter Love by resolving to make room in the inn of our hearts by clearing out whatever clutters it: sin, bad habits, resentments, whatever it is. Let's make ourselves as ready as we can for the birth of Love, trusting that God will do the rest.Let us be as ready as possible to fully embrace that amazing Gift, in order to grow in union with Love in a deeper way this year.