New Years Day in the Catholic liturgical season (the Roman calendar) opens the new year with a solemn feast dedicated to Mary Mother of God.  Why Mary?  Why the feminine vessel of God’s life, the Divine new life?  She embodies the posture of receptivity to the silent promptings of the Spirit.  Her consent is a paradigm for our lives, this humble yet strong demeanor of willingness, willingness to receive and accept the Divine promptings, even though there is so much that is unknown surrounding her ‘yes’, unknown about where her ‘yes’ will lead, about what it will ask of her, about how it will unfold into the future. 

And the Word became flesh’ (Jn 1:14).  Behold reality: ‘God is now all in all’.  This is the miracle of Christmas: God has become flesh of our flesh, embodied in the totality of human life. God’s total gift of his own life given in his Son, given to us, given for us, unconditionally.  ‘O silent night, O holy night’:  this beautiful Austrian hymn depicts this reality in its lyrics and music.  It is a silent night…it must be a silent night but why silence one may ask?

The gospel reading for this Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, asks us to behold who the Coming One is.  John the Baptist, who is now in prison, is hearing about the works Jesus is doing.  He seems a bit puzzled about who Jesus is and sends his disciples to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one to come or do we have to wait for another?” (Mt 11:2-11).  Indeed, the One who is coming will challenge our religious view of who God is.

“‘But what is this darkness?  What do you call it?  What is its name?’  The only name it has is ‘potential receptivity’, which certainly does not lack being nor is it deficient, but it is the potential of receptivity in which you will be perfected” (Sermons & Treatises, p.41).  These words of Meister Eckhart aptly speak of the interior landscape, the place where this Divine birth is to happen, the place of God’s new incarnation.  With this Second Sunday of Advent, we have the voice of John the Baptist speaking within the landscape of the soul: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’.  John also cries out: ‘Repent’:  change your ways, change your attitude, your mindset, your rigid, narrow perspective, your harsh judgements. 

How would we describe who Jesus is?  And for more perspective: How does Jesus exercise authority in his ministry?  The gospels themselves are revelatory and reflect the type of ‘king’ Jesus is.  One’s normal understanding of ‘king’ is turned upside down, inside out in applying this title to Jesus.  Who Jesus is gives us a stunning contrast, which is wholly other than what or who a ‘king’ normally is.