Magnify

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.”

--The Magnficat