Word to the Wise

Saturday, December 20, 2025 - December 20

[Isa 7:10-14 and Luke 1:26-38]
Listen, O house of Israel! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. [Isaiah] "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "how can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." [Luke]



     The fulfillment of prophetic promise figures strongly in today's scriptures.  The passage from Isaiah is one that I can recall being drummed into our heads in catechism class in grade school, just in case some non-Catholic might deny the virgin birth of Jesus!  The passage from the Gospel According to Luke might get past us unless we go back to 2 Samuel 7:11-16 in which the Lord promises David that his throne will endure forever.
     The familiarity of the scene, celebrated over and over again in art, is what usually captures our attention.  Some of the representations can be quite fanciful.  I have been to the very large church that stands over the home in Nazareth which tradition assigns as the location of the annunciation.  It is a very humble dwelling over which Christian faith has built up a huge structure!  Such is devout imagination which also assigns wings to the Angel Gabriel, etc..  It is all very comforting and familiar.  But things bigger than our imagination, God's plan of salvation and the fulfillment of God's promise are taking place (present tense).  We are the continuation of the earthly mission of Jesus which began with his conception in Mary and his birth in Nazareth!  The great Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart once wrote: "What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God 1400 years ago and I do not also give birth to the son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born." AMEN

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