Readings:
• 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
• Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29
• Rom 16:25-27
• Lk 1:26-38
“Hail! tabernacle of God and the Word. Hail! holy beyond all holy ones. Hail! ark gilded by the Holy Ghost. Hail! unfailing treasure-house of life.”
These words from the ancient Akathist hymn, a great sixth-century song of praise for the mystery of the Incarnation, poetically summarize the Marian themes in today’s readings. The Theotokos—the Mother of God—is the dwelling place of God, the “container of the Uncontainable God,” and “the womb of God enfleshed.”
Many of the early Church fathers spoke of Mary as the new ark of the covenant. “Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling,” the Catechism remarks, “is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells” (par. 2676). The ark of the covenant, described in Exodus 25, was a gold-plated wooden chest containing holy objects, including some manna, Aaron’s rod, and a copy of the covenant between God and Israel (Heb. 9:4-5). Its lid, the mercy seat, was made of gold and adorned with two cherubim, representing the throne of God.
For a long time the ark was kept in a mobile tabernacle. Eventually, as we hear in today’s first reading, King David desired to build a permanent house, or temple, for the ark. In responding to David, the Lord made clear that the only one who could build an everlasting house for God is God himself; he promised to eventually “raise up” an heir who would establish an everlasting throne and kingdom.
The raising up of an heir was realized in the coming down of the Son through the mystery of the Incarnation—“the mystery kept secret for long ages,” in the words of Saint Paul. The King of kings and Lord of lords rested within the throne of a womb; the Creator of all things visible was carried, invisible, within the Virgin; the Conqueror of sin and death was kept and concealed within the Blessed Mother.
“Hail! O you who have become a kingly Throne. Hail! O you who carries Him Who carries all! Hail, O Star who manifests the Sun. Hail! O Womb of the Divine Incarnation!”
Mary, created without sin, finding favor with God, and accepting in faith the call of the Lord, became a living, breathing ark of the covenant. “Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world” (CCC 2676). As God once dwelt in the tabernacle among a nomadic people, he now comes to dwell, through a singular woman, among men—pilgrims journeying toward their heavenly home. “For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men” (CCC 721).
David longed to build a temple and his son Solomon did build the temple, but only God could and did create a sinless, human temple.
Only God, because of his power and love, could become so small and humble so that he might save us. It is God who reaches out, who dwells among man, who becomes flesh and blood for our sake. Nothing, the angel Gabriel explains to the young Jewish virgin, “will be impossible for God.”
“May it be done to me according to your word.” With those words, Mary demonstrated the proper response to God, bursting with quiet faith and trusting reception. Opening herself to God’s word, she was filled with the Word who is God. Filled with the Holy Spirit, she became the throne of God.
“Behold,” exclaims the Akathist hymn, “heaven was brought down to earth when the Word Himself was fully contained in you! Now that I see Him in your womb, taking a servant’s form, I cry out to you in wonder: Hail, O Bride and Maiden ever-pure!” During Christmas we cry out in wonder at the work of God and the faith of his mother.
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the December 21, 2008, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
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First a reflection on the dignified beauty captured by Renaissance master Botticelli compared to the perverse Christmas display at the Vatican. That aside “bursting with quiet faith and trusting reception” hyperbole opens the mind to a rare dimension of the faith of Our Blessed Mother. Mother of the Word and Mother of the faithful graciously bestowed from the bloody Calvary Cross. Therein is signified what is lacked in the putrid soul that invents the perverse, the desire to suffer that others may benefit, for the Christian to save. Akathist prayer beauty unknown to this writer spells why it’s so important to remain in contact with the faithful. Especially those who research and read more than oneself. It’s a song. I’ve wondered why Augustine and the liturgy refers to acclamation of faith, a holy life as a song. Words spoken a life lived marking with music Mary’s child.
Merry Christmas Carl Olson, and everyone at the Catholic World Report!
God bless you one and all for proclaiming the Good News.
Thank you, Chris! Christ is Born!
We read that “heaven was brought down to earth…”
In addition to words, and in the alternative visual language of Botticelli’s painting, this same message is conveyed by “visual metaphor”. As was explained in my undergraduate years (early 1960s!) by an art professor in a major secular (!) university…
The metaphorical division of the window view into two separate-and-yet bonded halves (the supernatural and the natural);
Divided by a vertical line, the tree with five major branches harmonizing the two extended, but still separate, hands of the angel and Mary;
This feature symphonic with the parallel diagonal of the angel’s flattened halo;
The non-accident of the distant bridge which on the human side has five pilings recalling the almost-touch of the human hand;
And yet, above, is a triune unity of an exactly three-section guardrail;
the Renaissance expansion of the window itself into a contrast between the humanly-seen foreground and the distant and infinite horizon (earlier art was still planar and fully enclosed);
Then the left-and-right division between the two background castles, again separated by the vertical tree while also united around the one receding river;
And-far to the back–the location of the tiny humble dwelling on the horizon, still on the Marian side of the vertically dividing tree (rather than the angelic side), and of The entire composition where the divine invitation is met by the still-human “fiat”.
That humble dwelling, still on the earth but also on on the edge of eternity (the sky) is a microcosm of Marian humility and of the entire composition.
Well done, Carl, as usual.
God bless you, your family, all at CWR, and readers at Christmas and all year.
A blessed New Year, too.
Charlie Russo