Dear Friends,
Having celebrated the Holy Day of the Immaculate Conception, we quickly move on to the Second Sunday of Advent and come to realize that Christmas is not far away now. Our shortened Advent only gives us two weeks until the celebration of Jesus’ birth. So, how is your preparation going? Have you found time for a little extra prayer? Extra charity? Extra examination of your heart and God’s desires for you? If you are like me, probably not. It just all moves too fast and life is too full of things to get done between now and Christmas.
I’m writing this in the midst of the Holy Day Masses. The gospel for the Holy Day gives us a glimpse of the mystery of God taking on our human flesh in the womb of Mary. Let me give you a beautiful but challenging poem to reflect on this second week of Advent. It is titled “Annunciation” and is from John Donne:
Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He will wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death’s force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son and Brother;
Whom thou conceivst, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy Maker’s maker, and thy Father’s mother;
Thou hast light in dark, and shutst in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.
The poem powerfully names the irony of the Incarnation. The mysterious speaker in the poem appears to be the Angel Gabriel, his audience the Virgin Mary, and his subject matter the prophetic proclamation of the incarnation. Gabriel introduces his subject: a proclamation of salvation, held out to humankind in the person of the “All” (line two), which is God. Describing God as omnipresent (“which always is all everywhere”), sinless (“which cannot sin”), sacrificial (“all sins must bear”) and eternal (“which cannot die”), the angel announces the power of the baby to his mortal mother. He announces to Mary that this very God “yields Himself to lie/ In prison, in thy womb” (lines 5-6). This metaphor introduces a paradox that Donne proceeds to build to its amazing conclusion. Comparing Mary’s womb to a prison, Donne reveals the confinement which the Incarnation of God in flesh implies. Pursuing the irony of the God of the Universe confined within the small womb of a single woman, he goes on to show how mysterious is this event where the baby in her womb is the Maker’s maker – “immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.”
This Incarnational event that we are celebrating is truly amazing. Maybe this week you could reflect on what the God of the Universe did for nine months as he grew in Mary’s womb? What was it like for God to become flesh? To give up all power to show that he loves us? Beyond imagining perhaps, but try.
Peace,
Fr. Damian
Ps. I will be in Tekamah on Sunday morning exercising my role as Dean by installing their new pastor there.