WE'RE PREGNANT!

At each Mass we begin by welcoming one another. Let me welcome you again…to the world’s largest Lamaze class.

Today we begin to prepare for Christmas. Today we begin not only to prepare to celebrate God’s birth 2000 years ago through Mary, but God’s birth today through us.

Imagine the Angel Gabriel appearing to us, saying, Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you. The thought itself is unimaginable. Bear with me. 

No doubt we would be greatly troubled, as Mary was. Still she responded, May it be done to me according to your word.

What would be our response? Perhaps, we would be numb, in shock, incredulous; perhaps in such awe and amazement that it would steal our voices, our thoughts, our breath.

Advent - the holy encounter…the holy pregnancy - [any relationship with God] begins with awe and amazement.

Let’s see what else Mary does, so that we might learn from her. She proclaims The Magnificat. With a posture of deep humility, in the face of the mystery of being chosen...by God...for the unthinkable, she sings -    

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness…

And then Mary proclaims a vision of what this world - God's world - should look like.

He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with good things;

the rich he has sent away empty.

This is Mary’s vision of how to manifest God’s presence…how to give birth to God, a vision that is fulfilled in her son.

Pope Francis did the same.  We remember his great humility on the balcony immediately after he was elected.  And more and more he has also given us his vision, in saying The Name of God is Mercy, and in making mercy the centerpiece of his papacy.

The Season of Advent is more than celebrating the miracle and mystery of God entering our human family. Advent is our time of joyful expectation, attentiveness, and preparation …so God may be re-born in our human family today. Be prepared, the gospel says. 

It is my favorite season. There is nothing, absolutely nothing more joyful than to be pregnant…to feel life within…God’s life.

Now, it might also scare us, for it may require a change in us...a change in spiritual diet, discipline, exercise. But to make it easier, our gestation period is shortened from nine months to four weeks.

Have no doubt, on this First Sunday of Advent we are put on notice that we are pregnant…with God and with ourselves.

That’s correct. We are pregnant with God and with ourselves. As we give life to God, we give life to ourselves.

It has been said, The principal work of the faithful is to make God a reality…to make God visible; in other words, to give birth to God.

How do we give life to God…and to ourselves? The same as Mary did. We do it through our words and actions. 

Most especially, we do it by our vision of what we and this world should be if we and it are to be God’s…and then go about creating both.  

In creating your vision, I invite you to reflect on the following virtues consecutively during the four weeks of Advent and then Christmas: humility, mercy, joy, generosity, and gratitude.

We're on a journey of faith. Faith is life-giving! It transforms us; it creates in us a new awareness…a new being.  

That is the essence of what Jesus said time and again, such as when he said to Nicodemus (and to us), You must be reborn of water and spirit. 

We were reborn of water and spirit at our Baptism. 

At each Mass, we renew our  Baptismal rebirth. As we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we say, Amen ~ Let it be; let me be what I receive. It is like Mary’s fiat: Let it be done unto me.

Let me give him birth in me…and through me! Let me be his eyes and ears, his hands and heart.

Advent is a special time to remind us of our rebirth, and to give birth to the mystery we call God.

Happy Pregnancy!  Happy Advent!