Preparing for Christmas

 

Adoracja z Niepokalanowa

You read that right.  Today, the feast of the Annunciation, marks the moment in time when God became one of us –  a unique human being beginning to unfold according to the laws of nature. To some, this seems like a crazy idea: that God would become something so small, so hidden, so apparently insignificant that many today would dismiss it as disposable tissue.

Yet the angel said to Mary:

 ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus'. (Luke 1:30-31).

If that seems astonishing, consider something just as perplexing:

'While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many'. (Mark 14:22-24)

The belief in the Incarnation -  God becoming flesh at a particular moment -  is inseparable from that other moment when Jesus changed bread and wine into his Body and Blood.

And if disbelief is not already suspended, consider this:

'Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has been raised.'  (Matthew 28:5-6)

The Incarnation in Mary’s womb, the institution of the Eucharist, and the Resurrection form a single triad. God becomes one of us, transforms our nature, and leads us from death into eternal life. God becomes flesh; that flesh is given for us in the Eucharist and is raised in glory at the resurrection.

None of this makes sense unless we take Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, at his word.

This is why all human life — from conception to natural death — is sacred. It has been divinised by God in the very act of the Incarnation. But the story does not end there. In one of his parables Jesus says:

I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” (Matthew 25:42-43)

What we do to the least of his brothers and sisters, we do to Him — including the vulnerable, unborn child in the vulnerable womb of the greatest woman who ever lived, and who said yes to life.