Company Coming!

Where would the Christmas holidays be without visitors?  As much as we might enjoy heading out to someone else’s home to see them, their Christmas tree or their Christmas gifts, there’s nothing quite like welcoming someone “to our house.”  Most of us have a memory of a favorite holiday visitor:  a particularly kind aunt, the man who used to live next door, a grandmother who lived far away and could only come “to our house” on special days.  No need for us to pack, to drive or fly; all we needed to do was stay home, open the door and enjoy!

And so Mary comes to visit Elizabeth.  Elizabeth receives Mary who has come to console her in her time of pregnancy.  But Mary, of course, brings a special gift:  she is Theotokos, the God-bearer.  Mary brings the child Jesus in the silence of her womb as she comes to visit.  All Elizabeth has to do is enjoy!

“Hark my lover—here he comes!”  This cry of the Song of Songs anticipates the proclamation of Christmas, only a few days away and fills us with expectation.  A special “visitor” comes to us; no need to pack, to drive or fly; all we need to do is stay home, open the door and enjoy!  Divine Love in person, Love who made heaven and earth, comes to the earth, to us, “to our house,” to live in our flesh and blood and to love us “from the inside out.”        

“Hark, my lover—here he comes!”  Among those whom we hope to see in these coming holy days, perhaps there will be a visitor, a special visitor, someone who will be a “God-bearer” for us.  Perhaps it will be someone familiar, perhaps someone whom we have never encountered before; yet, through their words or even their silence, they may yet bring us the presence of Jesus in a new way this Christmas.

The scriptures invite us to expectation and a new willingness to receive.  Stay home, open the door and enjoy!