It is again the case that an Advent reading preparing us for Jesus’ birth arrival is concerned about another arrival and thus John the Baptist is again emphasized rather than Mary. The Gospel reading finds John the Baptist in conversation with strangers. They seek answers as to who John is and why he witnesses to Christ as he does. John witnesses in isolation, living apart from others in the desert. Lost to us is Mary and her conversations with strangers who seek answers. Lost to us is who she is and why she witnesses to Christ as she does. She witnesses in collaboration, living in communion with her baby in the world.
Mary, like all pregnant women, is a wonder, a glorious meaningful wonder and thus sought out. Well intended persons, even strangers, ask questions of pregnant women; sometimes rather personal in nature. We want to know if she and her baby are well, how she feels, and what her heart and even her spirit are going through. Pregnant women are a witness to the most fundamental desire of the human heart; they are in full communion with another life – a life growing inside of them. How marvelous! How very miraculous! Pregnant women have so much to tell us about what it means to live from the inside out; physically, emotionally, spiritually. They can tell us what it means to live contemplatively, calmly embracing inner life while living in a frenetic outer world. In sharing from their experience, pregnant women have opportunities for intimate conversations of great depth and significance – even with strangers. Perhaps most often with strangers because the communion they witness is a prompt for strangers to connect. It is an opportunity to be in communion in a world that often keeps us strangers to one another.
“Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you, You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me, as of a dream,) I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you, All is recall’d as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured, You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me, I ate with you, and slept with you–your body has become not yours only, nor left my body mine only, You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass–you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return, I am not to speak to you–I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone, I am to wait–I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.” (To A Stranger – Walt Whitman)
Prayer: Spirit of Communion, in you we are none of us a stranger to the other
Question: When was the last time I reached out for communion with a stranger?
December 17, 2017 Gospel John 16-8, 19-28 Third Sunday of Advent