Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 196

"How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.

Judaism, from the time of Moses until the present, has always recognized some persons as sent by God. Moses anointed Aaron as priest, David was anointed as king; others were anointed as prophets. The English word Messiah comes from the Hebrew language; and Christ from the Greek; both mean anointed. During a ritual, certain individuals are anointed with oil on the head indicating God's particular choice of them as priests, prophets, or kings. No one anoints themself as a messiah or christ; that's the prerogative of God's people. (Some people claim they are anointed by God himself; but if their humility doesn't attest to it, they're dismissed as fools.) 

Isaiah described Cyrus, the Persian empire, as a messiah, because he had the authority to send a delegation of Jews from Babylon back to the ruined city of Jerusalem to rebuild it. We can wonder if Cyrus, perhaps acting with some ceremonies, might have formally pronounced his decision; or did he simply sign a document and send multiple copies to all the appropriate functionaries. 

I heard a rabbi describe Abraham Lincoln as a messiah or christ for the same reason. Only a man of his genius and chosen by God could have led a nation torn by civil war to reunite. 

But, despite all the messianic christs who came, or might have come, from God, only one was born of a virgin. Of only one was it necessary that he should be born of a virgin, for only a virgin-born man could bear the title, "Son of God." 

If nearly anyone could be a messiah, anyone could also be a child of God. When the Angel calls this one a Son of God, we know there is no other like him. As dazzled as we are by the virginity of Mary, we should not let its eclat overshadow the singular importance of her son. Everything about Mary points to Jesus; and she would have it no other way. 

Our scriptures show how she stepped away from Jesus to let us approach him. Saint Luke tells us that when she and Joseph brought the child into the temple, Simeon took the baby in his arms and praised God. We might imagine her astonishment at this old fellow's impetuous grab at the child, but she let him do it. And Joseph too, allowed him to sing and dance with the baby. We can suppose the couple welcomed the rough shepherds to gaze on the child as they described choirs of angels in the sky. The occasion was too wonderful to hide the boy from them. 

The occasion was clearly bigger than the Lord's parents. As Saint Luke tells us, they could only stand back in amazement. 

As believers in the Son of God, we too surrender ownership of him to those who would see and worship him. We have our teachings about him, and we rightly insist on their correctness. We have spent centuries pondering this mystery and are convinced not only of these doctrines, but also of their importance. Misunderstandings mislead and we don't want that to happen to anyone, for they can be fatal. 

But we must also recognize the wonderful ways in which many nations express their faith in the Lord. There are many right ways to love God. Catholics especially appreciate that since we don't have to travel very far to discover the multiculturalism of our Church. If German-Catholic and Irish-Catholic churches no longer face each other from across an urban street, there are still large enclaves of ethnic communities singing their love of the Lord in different languages, while dancing in their distinctive garb. 

All praise God for giving us his only begotten son, even as we thank the Virgin for her beautiful boy.