unusually this last Sunday of Advent falls this year on Christmas Eve..so there is an immediacy to the expectancy as the birth of Christ child is imment.. “..are you the man to build me a house to live in?” God asks David.. if ever I decide..whenever I decide..to become flesh & begin to live alongside you in this world & its ongoing emergence as my paradise on earth, “are you the man to build me a house to live in?” & before David, like Our Lady after him, & us after them, try to wriggle off hook with lame words of question & self doubt..”how can this come about since I am a virgin?” Bede Leach is ignorant, God summarises all the blessings David Mary & now you & I have been the beneficiary of so far, reminding them & us of how favoured we have been & will continue to be..so the question has an inescapable answer or you wouldn’t be here this evening /morning..”are you the man to build me a house to live in?” “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people..” ; Lord have mercy “..I have been with you on all your expeditions..” ; Christ have mercy “..the Lord will make you great..” not ordinary but great.. ; Lord have mercy May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins & bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
..a few weeks ago after our Sunday morning Mass I was in the Sacristy finishing off the loose ends tidying away, & whistling a hymn tune to my hearts content..only for David Bowman, one of our eminent team of organists, to put his head in & congratulate me on perfect pitch !..a compliment indeed from a master musician for one who is always asked to stand in the back row & to sing as quietly as possible in the monastic choir, who would never make it to the high office & high notes of being cantor in the Abbey Church.. & our gospel I suggest turns the tables..for so long we have been taught to honour Marys perfection in her servant discipleship, to such an extent that, as recently as 1854, the Church declared her Mary Immaculate..conceived without sin..perfect pitch in her life & her Magnificat..her song, her tune, a life of distant blessedness..& Lukes account of the Annunciation voices that perfection, a divinely given state rather than a crisis torn life long encounter, where the two natures, human & divine, struggle in a journey of becoming..Tony Jordans production “The Nativity” first shown in 2010 attempted to read between the lines & thereby enable the fullness of the encounter to be seen heard & felt, challenging the understandings of early Mariology in which the enemies to be toppled were heresies & errors, even personal sins, with a self defensiveness which protected the sinlessness of the institutional Church..a re-reading of Lukes Gospel through your own divine spectacles, rather than the old, now dated specsavers pair, with their partial tunnel vision sightedness, has enlightened the words & the mission into one of liberation rather than compliance..good news, emerging breaking news, rather than a definitive set text..it is no longer spiritualised into cosy harmlessness but is a call a challenge & a manifesto to renew the face of the earth..the apartness of the traditional Mary gives way to her engagement with & immersion into the practical spirituality which seeks to give birth to the gradual healing of the kingdom made manifest, not just among us but within us..a Christmas Eve to ponder on the journey of Mary to the manger & to all that was to be made manifest in that journey..Tony Jordans sensitive devotional attempt to show Marys shock & pain at being “covered with the shadow the power of Most High “ showed the Holy Spirit at work & in prayer in the very moment of conception..the very thought of it 40yrs ago in Catholicism would have been judged offensive, even sinful, & now we meet & encounter a Mary full of grace & truth, who struggled in her humanity to live up to her divinity..so like her Son as he too struggles in later life in gospel stories we no longer feel the need to gloss over or read definitively & piously..a life & faith where perfect pitch & perfection take a lifetime to work live & pray towards in organic spirituality..the perfect pitch of Marys fiat, her wonderful self surrender into the service of her God, is now seen acknowledged realised as the overture “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me” little did she know then what the fiat was to cost her..& yes “the angel left her” but perhaps not with the glow of satisfaction & of triumph we have, for all these years, been led to believe in..in Tony Jordans account is a wonderful moment when, having told Mary the extraordinary news, Gabriel sheds tears..tears of joy?..or tears of sorrow for what this young innocent girl is to encounter in struggling to remain faithful to her promise, her struggle & her failure to retain perfect pitch..she & we meeting on common ground at a manger in few hours time..she surrendering her perfection to become fully human, we surrendering more of our humanity as we meet & become more divine in our individual & collective struggle towards perfect pitch..to being fit for divine purpose, in becoming the womb space for the birth of the Christ child this Christmas..I wonder which carol David Bowman may hear me whistling tomorrow morning after our Christmas Day Mass at the manger, where there are no seats for an audience, nor room for a congregation, just limitless places for beloved participants musicians disciples & singers..”for nothing is impossible to God..” [4thSunAdventYrB Luke 1;26-38] .