There is a certain soul-virginity required in living the vigorous and virtuous Christian life. As followers of Jesus we must cultivate holy innocence of head, heart, and hands. Such attitudes and actions open the window of heaven and, thereby, allow the visitation and favor of God to enter into our lives. Our text highlights the fact that Mary had developed such holy innocence in her life so as to be chosen and blessed by God. Her final fiat, in spite of being “greatly troubled,” emptied her enough so as to be filled with the Holy Spirit. May each of us be so submitted and inspired.
The entrances of God into our lives can provoke intense anxiety or outright fear. This is especially so when God’s visitations are unusual or his expectations seem hard or impossible. How can a “virgin” conceive? Mary heard from God and Mary was afraid. From a human perspective, she had good reason to be. And yet Mary, in spite of her fears, chose faith. Mary chose “yes” over “no.” The good news is that God will enlighten, enliven, and empower us. While we may have cause to fear, we have greater cause to have faith. God has said “Fear not,” and we can take heart and say “yes.” God’s unmerited favor has the ability to cast out fear.
Life is full of questions. Topping these may be the questions of “How?” and “Why?” Either inquiry may be asked from a position of expectancy or exasperation and the answer may be answered with one further query: “What does God want?” And, to be quite honest, this is also not an easy question to ask or to answer. Our text clearly asserts three very appropriate responses to the revealed will of God. The first affirms God’s sovereignty: God is God. The second suggests God’s ability: God is the God of both the possible and the impossible. The third, predicated upon the first two affirmations, is that we are challenged to hear and heed what God communicates. How will we respond?
To believe is to take action. Belief is not just a disposition of the mind. Instead, belief includes head, heart and hands. Belief requires a disposition of being which is empowered by God and embraced by the entire human person. Mary, upon hearing of Elizabeth’s graced condition, creatively responded to the angelic announcement. Her “hands” followed her well-placed hope by going to visit her cousin. She made haste to see her! Belief such as this yields two blessings. It results in the blessing of God’s presence, and in the blessing of enjoying God’s promises. When we believe, even in the midst of ongoing questions, we too will know God’s presence and promises. When we are impregnated with the Person and promises of God, we can encourage others. Faith breeds faith.
God always fulfills his promises. Sometimes, however, we become impatient for the fulfilment of God’s word. As we examine both our nature and our culture, we are prone to impatience. We want answers now. God, on the other hand, wants to teach us to wait. We learn to wait by learning to remember. Throughout the Bible we are urged to remember. Mary, as one of many examples, remembered the promises to the “forefathers” in the glorious words of the Magnificat. To remember is to re-member, to renew, to activate God’s promises in the present moment.
Waiting weans us from our childish, and sometimes demonic, insistence upon now! Remembering makes waiting productive. “And Mary remained… and returned.”
God satisfies. Our text refers to Elizabeth who, for many years, was unable to have children. This was of great concern to both her and her husband. But, as with all faithful servants who wait upon God, there is favor and satisfaction. In fact, broadly interpreted, the name Elizabeth means God satisfies.
There is, however, timing involved in the plan of God. We may want now interventions, but God may insist upon not yet. Whatever our desire may be, whatever God’s timing and overarching plan may involve, now is never wasted when we wait and when we serve. This is important for us to remember. Ordinary Time is never, really, ordinary. Now is the time when we serve God in the ordinary, trusting that God alone is able to make ordinary obedience into extraordinary opportunities.
God will not be tamed or contained by our personal, social, denominational, religious, or “spiritual” expectations. It is comforting to think that the presence of God provides us with pleasant feelings. It is nice to think that God affirms our most cherished interpretations of belief. Unfortunately, while this may sometimes be the case, the presence of God can also produce a sense of considerable discomfort. The friends of Elizabeth and Zechariah were far from comfortable with her insistence upon naming the newborn. Her authority was just not conventional! (A WOMAN having authority! What is the world coming to?!)
The person, presence, purpose and power of God are astonishing. If we want to follow Christ we must learn to accept and navigate our Lord’s almost complete disinterest in social convention. Christ was guided by the Holy Spirit. It is the conventions of the Holy Spirit to which our Lord sought to conform himself. And, as we know, the Spirit is like the wind which blows when and where and how it wills. This moves us to one central question: Are we committed to living the Christian life or are we committed to social convention?
The movements of God elicit a number of different responses, both positive and negative. The disposition of the heart determines our response. Our text records at least three positive responses to God’s action. First, God’s word should be celebrated through participation in praise. Zechariah blessed God. Second, God is to be feared in his faithfulness and in his love. The people “feared” God when Zechariah spoke in obedience to God. Third, when we truly hear God we will begin to live anticipatory lives. The people began to ask about what would happen next. A proper response to God’s actions in our lives produces positive personal and social expectations. What WILL God do next!?
God is good. The prophecy of Zechariah recounts God’s goodness, and is rich in its revelations about God’s favor and faithfulness. Nevertheless, God’s prophetic word does not only seek to reveal the future. The visitation, redemption, and mercy of God are available to us now, here, today. Prophecy is a now event. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a present and powerful possibility.
However, while this is objectively true, we may have a subjective problem. We may, in fact, be far too religious to hear what God wants to say. Zechariah certainly was. In spite of being a priest chosen by God, he doubted. He was, as such, very much like each one of us.
One of the Proverbs tell us that a fool focuses upon the ends of the earth. That is, fools are so absorbed with looking elsewhere that they often do not see what is right in front of them: angels and answers. Maybe the fulfillment of God’s promise to us is right in front of our own eyes. We are all a shadow away from blessing and fullness.
Preparing our hearts to receive God demands that we apprehend, and be apprehended by, the spirit of the salvation that is entirely rooted in forgiveness. Any real relationship, a meaningful relationship, is rooted in forgiveness. To forgive is to redeem, to incarnate Christ into a wounded and wounding world. As such, the price of peace is high and will invariably involve sacrifice, suffering and (at times) death. The exercise of mercy, therefore, is always a form of martyrdom. A true knowledge of salvation is, therefore, a functional knowledge of salvation. Forgiveness is the essential lubricant to a functional and free society. The children of God are called and challenged to give knowledge, light, grace, and forgiveness.
While taking a national census may or may not have any temporal value, the taking of a personal inventory can influence both time and eternity. Attending to our lives, taking stock of who we are and where we are going, is important. When we reflect upon the census referenced in our text, there are several principles which may be useful.
Personal inventories are commanded (ordered) by God, and should be guided by God’s revealed priorities. As well, a personal inventory should be comprehensive, covering all known areas of our lives. Also, and vitally important, personal inventories should be consistently undertaken. That is, using other words, we should always “keep short accounts with God.” Such a process of analysis requires commitment. It is a discipline for disciples. Finally, and not to be neglected, personal inventories must have a communal aspect. That is, we often need other people in order to have proper perspective.
The census played a vital role in biblical history. A personal inventory can play a vital role in our own histories.
Little people play big parts in the ongoing saga of God’s redemption in and through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Every person, place, and passionately performed and God-purposed activity is of value. There are no exceptions.
Joseph, the husband of Mary, played such a role. We know little about him. His lineage, while noble, was minimal. He was, in short (from a human perspective), a small man from a small town who was betrothed to a woman of small reputation.
And yet, as we all know, this is not the entire story. This was not God’s perspective. In God’s eyes, Joseph was an almost invisible foundation upon which the early life of our Lord was constructed. Jesus, in fact, carried his name. We, as Christians, carry Christ’s name. What more could we ask?
We live cluttered lives. The demands of the immediate frequently marginalizes the eternal. We must prioritize that which is spiritual or, by neglect, relegate it to the barnyard.
One of the best ways to prioritize the spiritual is by living well-ordered and disciplined lives. An established routine – a pattern of prayer, meditation, devotional reading, sacramental living and Christian fellowship – is crucial to heart revitalization. Liberating us from the earthly, Christian disciplines are graced means by which we can more effectively follow Christ. They are, so to speak, stars that lead us to Christ. They are, changing the metaphor, wrappings of the Divine.
Ordered living is not dull. Instead, contrary to what many think, it provides a map by which we can scan the sky, pilgrimage, and safely arrive at our destination. Ordered living wraps the mangers of our lives in liturgical linens.
The faithful discharge of daily responsibilities has the potential to reveal God’s unique dispensations that can only be seen in the exercise of duty. Moses saw the burning bush while shepherding. Gideon was tending to the field. Ruth sought to support her family. Zechariah was tending to his duties as priest. Shepherds tended to their flocks. Mary and Joseph simply did what they were called to do.
Our everyday lives can be wearisome. However, notwithstanding the tiresome tedium of life, everyday existence is supernaturally graced. God is revealed in the ordinary, the everyday, the tedium and the boredom. To be found employed in the field of our varied vocations and practical responsibilities is to set the stage for the intervention of God. The ordinary is, really, quite extraordinary.
The Christian life is punctuated with epiphanies. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, the world is ablaze with God.
Of course, divine revelations (graces and gifts) can be hidden. Often these manifestations are wrapped in the improbable and impractical. God in a manger, at least on the surface of things, appears to be both illogical and impossible. But there it is, or, more precisely, there HE is.
We need new eyes in order to have a fresh perspective. Seeing the impossible, those things devoid of obvious glory, requires the focus of faith.
Faith has feet. We demonstrate faith by what we do, not by our desire. It is diligent to accomplish God’s purposes, making haste to do God’s will. What we do when the “angels” are gone is a key indication of the state of our faith.
However, faith does not always provide absolute clarity of direction. Faith provides the next step, not necessarily an outline of the entire journey. Although not always direct, faith helps us limp to our spiritual Bethlehem. We may not always be speedy but, by God’s grace, we will be steady. When God shows, we go!
All creative speech is rooted in silence. Listening and hearing must precede speaking. The context of Christian sharing, of evangelism, is an encounter with and the experience of God. We share what we have seen, heard, personally applied, and little more.
Relationships are, therefore, critical to this. The difference between proselytization and effective evangelism is found in our relationships. Telling the truth, rooted as it is in relationships, is different from selling the truth. We do not have something to “sell,” as much as we have Someone to tell.
The soul is a warehouse of both treasure and trash. Making deposits and withdrawals from this warehouse is a choice, a decision, which renders our lives altars or ashcans. Wisdom invests in wise decisions.
Silence and speech can be treasure or trash. The failure of our words to truly impregnate the world with God’s purposes may indicate a cheapness in our communication. Sadly, as evidenced so frequently in the public square and in the pulpit, we prefer cheap conversation above careful contemplation. Assigning value to something may at times require silence and secrecy. We may simply need to treasure things deeply within our hearts, secretly, silently, and solitarily, if we are ever going to speak the impregnated word. Mary was wise. Mary knew how to treasure things quietly and deeply.
Christians cannot live life on their own terms. To be a Christian, to be made alive by the Spirit of God, means that we must live our lives according to our baptismal and Eucharistic commitments. We are covenanted, and must live according to covenant expectations.
This means that heart-circumcision (God’s work) and hand-circumspection (our work) must work together. Purification of heart requires God’s mercy as well as the graced-sweat of our hands. We must bring our small part to God and, submitted upon his altar, God receives, reveals, redeems and renews what we present.
Again and again the believer waits, watches, prays, serves, and celebrates. Waiting upon God, an all-but-neglected Christian discipline, cultivates soul-attentiveness. Waiting opens the eyes, ears… and eventually the mouth. Simeon waited, and his waiting was full of purpose. Waiting for the consolation of the people of God, a nation fatigued with expectancy, prepared him to see and celebrate the coming of the Christ, even when others did not. God keeps his promises, and reveals himself to the patient and the prayerful.
Life in the Spirit embraces Christ, creates a radical receptivity to all things that are “according to [God’s] word” and supports every inspired opportunity to share the good news of salvation. If we have seen God we will want to share him with others. God has prepared the way before us. Simeon’s praise highlights God’s inclusive intention. The gospel is not for the elite and the exclusive, but for all those to whom God has chosen to reveal himself. It is the grace of God for his own glory. For those of us who tend towards exclusivity, it is important to reflect upon these brief words. It is a word for those who are “out” of the scope of our limited (and often limiting) horizon, but not out of God’s intention.
Spiritual receptivity invariably asserts the possibility of pain. To be open and available to God means that a sword will pierce our own hearts.
Mary accepted the call of God. Her acceptance was, however, costly. Saying “yes” to God meant that she had to endure misunderstanding, ridicule, isolation and, possibly, death. Although she may not have known all that her initial fiat included, she clearly understood the prophetic potential of having her heart pierced.
And yet her “yes” was fixed and firm. Receptivity, in spite of potential pain, is the price of a deeper revelation and experience of God.
Service, proper service, discovers and discloses God. If we do not serve we will not see. The revelation of God and the redemption of the world are found in sacrificial service. This is the way of Christ. This was, as well, the way of Anna. Here is a woman who “did not depart from the temple” and who served God through fasting and prayer “night and day.” She was “all in” and “all for” God, all the time.
Being faithful in service is its own reward. Doing one’s Christian duty is not to be despised. Nevertheless, as noted earlier in these meditations, doing what is right sometimes means that we will get to enjoy unique visitations of God. As Lawrence of the Resurrection has so aptly noted, even the smallest act of picking up a piece of straw can be an act of worship and a means of revelation.
The Christian life is, in many ways, a return to the Child. Innocence, discipline, order and wonder are all a part of (ideally) being a child. A return to the Child, to our most essential root, has its demands. Like a garden, the nurtured life requires careful attention and cultivation.
Jesus was a child. As a child he received the appropriate attention of godly parents. Although recognizing our Lord’s essential divinity, they did not allow Jesus to grow like a weed. They did not allow him “free range.” Instead, they performed and proclaimed the law. They nurtured him into responsible adulthood. That is, they provided proper discipline. Our Lord’s process of development was therefore guided and governed by the “custom[s]” that his parents embraced and advocated.
To return to the Child within us, to effectively follow the Child-Christ (MacDonald), we too must order our lives according to biblically revealed and sanctioned customs. Disciplines are essential to cultivating Christ within us. They are essential to soul-cultivation.
Joseph and Mary “performed EVERYTHING according to the Law” (ESV, emphasis mine). There was a reason why God chose Joseph and Mary. God was not arbitrary, and God’s choice was not random. God had God’s reasons. And, in part, God’s choice may have been related to this: Mary and Joseph knew no half-measures. They were diligent in duty, responsible in ritual, committed to relationship. They performed everything, and their commitment to God was and is abundantly evidenced.
Our Lord, as well, knew no half-measures. He gave all, the Word become flesh, for all. He dwelt among us, very God of very God, to dwell within us. He descended so that we might ascend.
Is our commitment to God so clearly evidenced?