Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
Mary and Joseph carved by Jacques Bourgault
The prophet Micah had prophesied as to where I would be born. So when the news came that Caesar had called for a worldwide census and my mother and adoptive father realized that we would all have to travel to Bethlehem, they rejoiced, knowing that God’s ancient promises were about to be fulfilled. Here we are on the way to Bethlehem. This was the third long journey my poor mother had to take while pregnant – she had a much harder time of it than I did. (Lk 2:1-5)
Meditation
We can picture Mary, now in the final trimester of her pregnancy, perhaps working at home or on an errand out in the town center, when she suddenly hears the news ‑ a census decree by Caesar requiring Joseph and her to travel to Bethlehem. A wave of joy and relief breaks upon her soul as she sees God intervening not only in her life, not only in the history of her own people, but with one universal sweep of His Almighty Hand in the history and destiny of the entire world! She is in awe, realizing that yet another prophecy is to be fulfilled ‑ not abstractly or disinterestedly, as some “head count” might be ‑ but intimately in her own life, in her own person and body and family, in the city of David.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in travail has brought forth;
then the rest of his brethren shall return
to the people of Israel. Micah 5:2‑3
The words of this prophecy could now be more fully appreciated by four Israelites; Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah. Particularly the more obscure words ‑ “whose origin is from of old, from ancient days” now held a remarkable meaning. God’s Son, eternal like God His “Father”; together their origin reaches back through time, beyond time’s beginning, into some old ancient unknown “days” before days were defined or numbered, before the earth existed. Eternally uncreated! (As the Nicene Creed states: “…eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.”)
Based on her astonishing experiences thus far and those words of the prophet Micah, Mary understood that her pregnancy (and unborn child) was different from all other pregnancies: a constant mystery of faith to her. This pregnancy of her’s had been the subject of prophecy, explained in scripture; angels had come to earth to reveal its holy hidden meanings. Her baby, in some sense existed before King David was conceived, before Abraham was called. As her now unborn child would explain it thirty years hence: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (Jn 8:58) From Unborn Jesus Our Hope
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