Christmas is drawing near! Today’s gospel from Luke places us before the Nativity—the promised Messiah is still growing in Mary’s womb, still several months away from his birth in Bethlehem. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit is already at work readying the hearts and minds of those who will first see the child Jesus (Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon). But the Son of Man cannot be pure spirit: He must be born into a body. Today’s second reading from Hebrews centers around a quotation from Psalm 40:6-8: “Sacrifice and offering you do not desire; but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come…I delight to do your will, Oh my God’” (RSV). The psalmist recognizes that making sacrifices according to the Mosaic law is not enough to atone for sin and bring him to friendship with God. Rather, the psalmist must make himself a proverbial offering, laying down his life to God’s will.
In light of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the author of Hebrews has altered the text slightly: instead of “you have given me an open ear,” the passage reads “a body you prepared for me.” Unlike the Psalmist, Jesus offered himself to God, not metaphorically, but literally, as the final holocaust which would “take away the first [covenant] to establish the second.” This body, prepared for him by God and grown in the womb of Mary, was the final, necessary sacrifice that would fulfill all the requirements of the Mosaic law and bring man back to God—a sacrifice so final and so complete that it “consecrates” everyone who comes to believe. It is the presence of this body, this perfect sacrifice, that sparked joy in both John and Elizabeth, and fierce love and faith in the heart of Mary. It is this body (now glorified) that we receive into ourselves during Holy Communion. As Advent gives way to Christmas, we called to renew our love for the awesome mystery and staggering gift that is the Incarnation.
Parishioner Kathryn Wilmotte