Sunday Reflections

It blows my spiritual mind every time I receive holy communion.  I look at the tiny host in my hand and try to get my head around the belief that I am holding the creator of the world, indeed of the entire universe.  And just as he came to be born as a helpless child in Bethlehem, he has  stooped to be bread and wine for me, to become part of my own body, his own creation. I am aware each time that I am indeed not worthy for him to come under my roof, to be part of me. No doubt you are aware that when we hear the invitation to eat the Body and Blood of the Lord that the word ‘eat’ is more accurately translated ‘masticate’ or ‘chew.’  There is a very visceral sense to the word; it is an invitation to truly become one with this spiritual food, as the saints would tell us, to become what we eat.

Mary M. Malone writes: “In today’s gospel, Matthew states quite simply that Mary was “found with child through the Holy Spirit.” Could he have been any more low-key in announcing the Incarnation? Just seven words? Yet, those words coincide with Isaiah’s announcement about Immanuel. They introduce us to Joseph’s simple willingness to encounter a new reality and change his life in the light of it. Matthew’s portrayal of Joseph reveals what is often entailed in collaborating with God. Joseph, like Mary, had to be willing to give up everything for the sake of God’s mysterious plan. “Everything” included his place of residence, his family and his reputation – all those things by which we tend to identify ourselves.

Malone continues to write that Paul taught that Christ emptied himself in order to be one of us  (Phil. 2:5-8). In response, we, like Joseph, are invited to empty ourselves, choosing to abandon anything that can get in the way of our union with God or our collaboration with God’s design for creation.  We are only a few days away from celebrating Christmas; as the days grow closer may we endeavor to make room in the inns of our hearts for his coming, so that through us as signs and sacraments of God’s love, those around us and in the world can encounter the Emmanuel who is truly “God with us.”