1 December 2019 – First Sunday of Advent Readings: Isaiah 2: 1-5; Psalm 122, R. Let us go rejoicing to...
French novelist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr famously wrote, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
With today’s feast, the Epiphany of the Lord, and the next Sunday’s, the Baptism of Our Lord, plus the Wedding Feast at Cana, we witness the three events in the life of Christ that prefigure his divinity.
Today, the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, we read from the final scenes in the Gospel of Luke before the story of Christ’s birth, the Visitation. This is a story that invites us to reflect on the grace of “presence” in our life.
Mater Intemerata
The bird is calling in the midnight air,
The maiden cannot sleep, she listens long,
And starts— What noise of nail and hammer there,
When all are sleeping, interrupts the song?
Then one brute force sucks hard her swooning breath,
A great flame grows deep in her womb and blood—
Is this the kiss, the fertile seed, or death?
Is this the time, my lover and my God?
Yet no one hears, the house is like a tomb,
For no one knows this godlike, swift, and wild
Descent—like metal clashing in her womb;
She lies down, weary, still, and feels defiled.
And in that noise, how can the maiden sleep?
Exhausted, raped, what can she do but weep?
