Thursday, December 12, 2024
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Imagine
Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the Lord, as he stirs forth from his holy dwelling.
Usually this language is reserved for bears or lions,stirring forth from their caves. So that’s what I see when I imagine the Lord stirring forth. Thank heaven my imagination is just that, not a real rendering but a picture I make up for myself.
Now imagine this.
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head, a crown of twelve stars.
Can you see it? Start with the lady on the Statue of Liberty and cover her with the sun and moon and crown her with many stars. She is in labor, holding her belly as she moans in pain. Now imagine this.
A huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, sweeping away the stars with its tail, hurling the stars down to earth, mouth wide open waiting to devour the woman’s child the moment she gives birth.
Can you see it? Now that you’ve exercised your imagination, spend a few moments in prayer, remembering a moment when your ego was jolted, or your identity as a boy or girl felt threatened. Ask yourself and ask Jesus, “Where were you when this happened?” Ask Jesus to speak to you in your remembered moment.
Where is Jesus when you speak to him? Does he touch you? What words do you hear him say?
Your deed of hope will never be forgotten by those who tell of the might of God.
Or perhaps Jesus simply says, “I love you. I was there with you all the time, and I did not let go of your hand.”
Do you believe him? What do you say next?
We are anxious for assurance in our short lives, regardless of where it comes from. But we are also created to embrace mystery, to accept the unknown in the midst of our relationship with God. God wants us to put ourselves firmly in her hands.
Zechariah demanded assurance when Gabriel spoke to him of John’s coming birth. “How can I be sure of this?” But Mary embraced the mystery. “How will this be, since I am still a virgin?” And Gabriel answered her with a mystery, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.”
Gabriel reproved the old priest, and Zechariah was struck dumb and perhaps deaf, until Elizabeth’s baby was delivered. Mary’s words of explicit acceptance pleased the Lord and his messenger. “I am the Lord’s servant,” she said. “May it be done unto me according to thy word.”
Do I insist on certainty or can I embrace the unknown, call it a mystery and be suitably awed? I hope I will continue to juggle these requirements of life, both physical and spiritual, both temporal and eternal.
And now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His anointed.
(Zechariah 2, Revelation 11-12, Judith 13, Luke 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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