GRACE THROUGH TIME 4

LEAPING FOR JOY

There is a particular kind of waiting that attends pregnancy and the scriptures see it as the way in which humanity waits for its full flourishing. Paul speaks of the Christian hope as a pregnancy moving towards birth: the whole creation is longing and groaning in one great act of giving birth (Romans 8:22).

The domestic scene in a town in the hill country of Judah contains a drama of eternal significance. The newly pregnant Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is already in the sixth month of her pregnancy. On the face of it, a very ordinary joy, the meeting of two expectant mothers. But it is a meeting in which the gospel is preached for the first time, and the fulfillment of the world’s hope is recognized. Mary is the first to carry the word of the Incarnation to another human being. Elizabeth is the first to hear this message, that the Word has become flesh and is dwelling in Mary’s womb.

When the sound of Mary’s greeting reached her ear – a very ornate way of describing something simple – John the Baptist leapt for joy. Elizabeth was given a sign as she heard the words of Mary’s greeting. The Spirit filled her, we are told, and she proclaimed with a loud voice – another very ornate way of describing something simple: she shouted with a great shout.

Luke clearly wants us to notice the hearing and the speaking of Elizabeth just as in the Acts of the Apostles he uses similar language to describe the hearing of the gospel and its proclamation. Faith is established in Elizabeth through physical events, an encounter, words spoken, a leaping baby, with the Spirit working through those things. Faith is established in those converted by the apostles through physical events, encounters, words spoken, signs of compassion and love, with the Spirit working through those things.

Elizabeth’s words of praise seem related to those of another woman in Luke’s gospel, the one who also shouts out, this time ‘happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked’. To which Jesus replied ‘happy rather those who hear the word of God and keep it’. This is exactly what Elizabeth said to Mary: blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

Christianity is a physical religion, the religion of the marriage of God and matter as Chesterton put it. The world is pregnant with the Word. He has been brought to birth by Mary, has been given a body in which to serve the Heavenly Father, and in his resurrection that body has been glorified. But the Word continues to dwell within the world, carried in earthenware vessels, present in his body, the Church. In Christian tradition the Church is always ‘she’, a mother pregnant with the Word of life, struggling to bring it to birth in those she encounters. (Of course, as we are constantly reminded, the bearers of this Word are the first who need to hear it.)

We live then in a time of pregnancy and expectation, the time of the Church, the time of the preaching of the gospel. If we are to be among the blessed then we must not only hear it but also keep it. Where else can we do that but here? When else can we do it but now?

This reflection was first published in The Tablet, 19/26 December 2009, p.25