Expectant faith
There’s something I’ve always missed in this Gospel, something significant, until recently when a friend asked me to reflect on it for her.
We aren’t told of the moment that the Holy Spirit over shadows the Blessed Virgin, we are only told that it will, and in her perfect obedience to Gods will Mary agrees.
That exact moment isn’t shared with us, I can only imagine this would have been a deeply personal and intimate moment between Mary and The Holy Spirit, and although it would affect the whole world, it isn’t a moment that is shared with us. That it will and does happen is shared yes. But the very moment itself is kept, safe and secret with the Blessed Mother.
The Jewish wedding ceremony had/ has a custom called Beddekken which is the veiling of the bride. The final step in this tradition is called nissuin (to take), a word that comes from naso, which means to lift up.” once the veil is removed it symbolizes that the groom is now able to be intimate with his bride. The unveiling of Mary was the moment that God became intimately connected with her..the start of the incarnation.
We aren’t told much about the pregnancy, but we know that once Mary is pregnant with The Word she needs protection. The first three months of any pregnancy are the most vulnerable, it’s easy to miscarry. Mary has to leave to stay with Elizabeth to protect herself and The Word growing within her. In this time and situation she could possibly have been stoned to death, there would definitely have been gossip and rumour. Mary is the tabernacle, but the tabernacle itself needs shelter.
Joseph is Gods provision, he has a priestly role, even though he is a humble carpenter, as protector of the word. He will be providing for and protecting The Word as He grows in the womb and then in the world. He protects the tabernacle. Ensures The Word is delivered into the world safely.
Do you remember when The Word first took root in you? Do you remember when a Faith in Christ started to grow within you? Secretly at first, strange stirrings of the heart, questioning what was happening in your own mind and soul? The confusion, a little fear perhaps?
Just as with a physical pregnancy, in the beginning of our spiritual Journey that planted word is vulnerable and weak. It takes very little for it to be miscarried, lost and in so many cases it is. But by grace, The Word grows hidden and unseen by the world, only known by the bearer and close confidants. This is all the work of God, the mother has only to nurture herself in order to support all that is occurring right under her heart.
Only those who can be trusted to protect the mother and nurture the infant know of this secret indwelling, there’s something precious in that. For the Virgin Mary that place was with her cousin Elizabeth. For us, with our precious offspring of faith that should be The Church or other people of faith. But beware, there are Herods in every establishment waiting to kill anything resembling an embryo of truth growing…..
In its perfect time The Word grows so large within us that it becomes visible to those we encounter. It can no longer be hidden, it becomes the first thing noticed in us. All the while we rejoice in what is coming into being yet groan under the discomfort of all else being either squeezed or stretched to accommodate this new life. This life, this faith life has a strength now, something not so easily destroyed, able to withstand a little trial, the odd knock.
We are preparing for a birth, preparing for what this indwelling will come to be when brought out into the world in a physical way. From that moment the world is changed. For those of us who have birthed this miracle a new understanding of purpose is given… all this time spent in the belief that the gestation was the purpose, we now see that faith take on flesh in all that flows from us. We feed our fledgling faith as a mother feeds her child, responding to every murmur of need with prayer, community and sacraments until it is resilient and robust.
I just wonder about who around us is secretly carrying the embryo of faith, who needs to see in you as a safe place to share? Who needs the gentle care of a newly expectant Christian? So often we bluster past, we knock each other, roughly respond to questions, I wonder how many infant faiths are lost through our lack of love and care? ….just a thought, but because we don’t know who is secretly incubating a life with Christ, Maybe we need to treat everyone with the same gentleness we would an expectant mother. Maybe it’s up to us to help nurture the bearers until they, in fact till we all reach full term.
