First Sunday of Advent: Bearing Life into the World

Nine months pregnant. Aching back and feet. Exhaustion. And on top of it, traveling by donkey for three whole days in order to fulfill a command from a far-off governor to count the inhabitants of Bethlehem. Yet – Mary never claimed exemption because of her circumstances.

I probably would have tried to claim exemption. I have claimed an exemption for jury duty for much less than three days on a donkey at my due date. Why didn’t she refuse to go or claim an exemption? Why didn’t she make it easier for herself?

Caryll Houselander puts it in hauntingly simple terms:

“...Mary never claimed exemption from the common lot, from the circumstances that would be the common lot of all women for all time.
She knew it was ‘useful’ – that those who are patient, obedient, humble, will be the mothers of Christ, will give Life back to the world.”

Reed of God, Caryll Houselander, pg. 52

Bearing Life and our “Common Lot”

Mary never claimed exemption from the common lot because she knew it would give Life back to the world. She knew that by living the ordinary, mundane, and unnervingly monotonous requirements thrust upon her by the Romans, she would bear Christ into our hearts and lives. 

Mary, no doubt, continued to share the “common lot” of women for all time. I have imagined Mary tending to her child in his sickness, looking on with tired eyes and prayers of healing.  Up in the middle of the night nursing Jesus as a newborn, tired as any other mother today. Preparing Jesus and Joseph meals, day in and day out. Keeping a tidy home. Mending the clothing. Doing the ordinary, hidden thing, simply because it is what was asked of her –  to bear and rear and raise this babe in an ordinary family –  who would come to be known to many as the Messiah. 

She shows us what these ordinary circumstances allow in our lives: to bear Life back into the world. 

Accepting the Ordinary

This past week has been a doozy at my own house – we were hit with a particularly nasty virus. And these moments are hard, because they demand a lot of us as parents. Three small children, all sick. Each with different needs and discomforts. The baby with a relentlessly runny nose who despises having his face wiped and who also follows me around, begging to be held. I hold him, and when I employ the help of a sling or baby carrier to give my arms a rest, he wriggles out and then asks to be held again – without the carrier or sling. He wants me and only me.

My eldest can’t kick the cough, can’t get a good night’s rest, making her agitated and unhappy during the day. If only I had the antidote I would fix it, but I don’t, so I suffer through sleepless nights with her.

The Hidden Holiness

Mary shows us how this common lot brings Life. She shows us that  these ordinary, hidden circumstances are holy. She didn’t exempt herself from anything. And now, I can’t get that thought out of my head. As I helped my daughter dry off after her bath, I looked at her haggard face and tired eyes and rubbed lotion onto her dry skin. I had such intense compassion for this poor child and such an awareness that this is my path to holiness. This is serving Christ, bearing him forth into the world. Caring for my child is what sanctifies me. The mundane, the ordinary, the difficult, the exhausting and yet – the holy. 

The holy is in the runny noses and incessant coughs and my own tired arms. In prepared but uneaten bagels and half consumed apples turning brown, endless cups of water and spilled apple juice, empty medicine droppers strewn across the counter and piled up dishes. My exhaustion because of my state in life is a sign that I have become, through my own common lot, a Life bearer. 

Could it be? Am I really called, as Mary is called, to bear Life into the world? She was heroic, strong, patient, and humble. I am none of these. Yet, I have hope because Mary is not her own light. She shines forth, in perfect clarity, the light of the Son. And we, though imperfectly, can also shine forth the light of the Son. We can bear him to others because he can shine through us too. 

What a gift. What responsibility. What joy. 

For Prayer and Reflection

I pray that in these Advent days of waiting and preparing for the coming of the Christ child, you may consider your own common lot. Small children may not be your common lot anymore, but what is? What has it looked like and what does it look like today? How are you bearing Christ into the world? I challenge you to sit with these questions in prayer this week and see the many ways you have given Life back to the world. 

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