There is a small town
in the hill country of Judea called Ein Karem.
It sits nestled in the among the trees outside of Jerusalem. Among these trees sits the Church of the
Visitation. Like the majority of
Christian holy sites throughout Israel/Palestine, it is held in the tender and
caring hands of the Franciscans, and it is here, legend has it, that Mary came
to visit her cousin Elizabeth. It is
here that Mary gave her song of praise and glory to God, which we call the Magnificat.
A mile or so from
Visitation is the Church of St. John the Baptist, which marks the birthplace of
Jesus’ prophetic cousin. Underneath the
altar, carved in the wall, is a grato with an altar—the place where Elizabeth,
said to be unable to have children, gave birth to the “prophet of the Most
High.”
Both of these sites
speak to the Incarnation, that beautiful and sacred mystery which we will
celebrate one week from today. But as I
walked around these holy sites in the summer of 2010 the Incarnation hit me in
a different way. Here in the place,
touching and seeing sites connected to an unwed mother, an elderly couple, and
a crazy man who ate locusts, the true beauty of the Incarnation came pouring
over me: it’s about regular people who
said ‘yes’ to God!
God’s story becomes
our story in the Incarnation. Our story
becomes God’s story. No longer are we
separated by the false chasm of mortal/immortal. Thanks to these regular people saying yes to
God—thanks to a little girl who must have been terrified to learn she would be
the theotokos, thanks to a family
told they would never raise a child, thanks to that child saying yes to God’s
call for him to preach repentance and prepare the Way—the whole of existence is
transformed.
What is the ‘yes’
that God has planted in your heart this Advent season? What is burning deep within you? We are, each of us, pregnant this
season. We are pregnant with God’s hope
for the future, a hope that was planted in the womb of a young Palestinian
girl. And if the Incarnation is about
regular people, then that means it is about you and me! It is about us taking our places in the story
alongside Mary, Elizabeth, John, and countless others. It is about us joining them in giving glory
to God and transforming the world.
Advent invites us to
feel Jesus growing inside of us, as He grew inside of Mary. Advent invites us to give birth to Jesus
ourselves. How will Jesus be born in
you? How will you take your place in the
glorious story of the Incarnation?
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.”
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.”
--The
Magnficat
