“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”– Lk 1:47
“The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.”- Jn 1:14
Today we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feast by reflecting on St. Luke’s story of a pregnant Mary visiting a pregnant St. Elizabeth. Reflecting on this biblical story, and the many others of miraculous conceptions and births, I see a central conception and birth miracle: The story of our Infinitely Creative God and Divine Mystery coming to birth in us, which Advent prepares us to celebrate. The Christmas story symbolizes that Divine power, beauty, goodness, truth and love is becoming flesh in each of us. I pray that we Xaverians, Associates, students and alums foster the virtue of simplicity and perceive this deeper love story weaving through all of the sacred words in our Faith journeys, including Mary’s appearances to Juan Diego on today’s feast.
The word “incarnation [become flesh],” summarizes this simple story and is the heart of the Good News from Christ, The Messiah. It boggles our minds to conceive that we share the Divine Life, but this explosive message of Jesus spread like wildfire through the Roman Empire and set countless hearts on fire. Jesus and his followers proclaimed the Kingdom (power) of God within us in a divine community of life where every sparrow and hair on our head is bringing our loving God to birth. How could our own hearts not rejoice as we realize with Mary that we proclaim God’s greatness and are “words” in the Divine Word, Christ, bringing God to birth in our flesh and blood. We could never imagine a more spectacular love story.
Dear Lady of Guadalupe, help us to fathom this profound love story of the Eternal Word, the greatness of God’s power, beauty, goodness and love, emerging in us, and awaken our minds this Christmas to who we are as Christ’s body and blood in our world.
Brother Bill Griffin CFX
Thank you Brother for your inspirational reflection!