Rather than calling our attention to figures like Isaiah and John the Baptist who relayed God’s promise to His people and prepared the way of the Lord, today’s readings center on our Blessed Mother and on the fulfillment of that promise: the actual arrival of the Promised One in her womb.
Our readings today, even before we get to Christmas Day, ask us to think about this fulfillment of God’s promise and its relationship with history; which you know is one of my favorite topics. The readings today propose that human history is not outside of God’s plan, but that our salvation occurs within human history; the readings remind us that despite signs to the contrary God controls and is the author of history; and finally, they invite us to realize that God chooses us to play a part in the unfolding of His plan.
In our first reading today we hear about the great King David. His entire life has been a story of struggle and violence, from his slaying of Goliath as a young man, through the many battles and wars he waged as king. But now, the Scriptures tell us that David “was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from his enemies on every side.”
David has arrived – he’s made it. Everything is going right for him and now that his kingdom is secure his thoughts turn to the dwelling place of God. While David lives in a palace, the ark of God’s covenant has dwelt all these many years, centuries in fact, in a tent: a rather temporary, impermanent, even undignified dwelling place.
And so, David resolves to build the Lord a Temple like all the other great gods of the ancient world. At first, the prophet Nathan says that God approves – but then God clarifies His response.
In time, God will let David’s son Solomon build the Temple, but for now God makes a promise to David instead: I “will establish a house for you, and when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you . . . your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.”
That’s quite a promise. The problem is that history seems to prove otherwise! It appears as if Nathan or God were wrong. After David, his son Solomon does indeed rule in security, and he builds the Temple in Jerusalem – but then almost immediately after he dies the kingdom splits in two. Solomon’s son reigns in Judah, the Southern kingdom, and David’s line thus endures for another 400 years, but then the Babylonians come and destroy Jerusalem, and the Temple Solomon had built, and the royal line of King David.
By all appearances, God’s promise had failed. But the lesson of today’s readings is that appearances can be deceiving. Things are rarely as they seem when you’re talking about God’s plan. Even through the ups and downs of history God is working out His plan of salvation – He is keeping His promises and controlling human history in mysterious and hidden ways.
And so nearly 600 years after the Babylonians destroy David’s kingly line and kingly city, we hear in today’s Gospel, that an angel appears to a young girl in the tiny town of Nazareth in Galilee and announces that she will bear God’s Son.
She is “betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David,” and so any child born to her will be claimed by his house. Indeed the angel says that her Son “will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give Him the throne of David His father and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
In the most unexpected way, in a hidden and mysterious way, God’s promise is being fulfilled!
What is the temple, the tabernacle, of this descendant of King David? Not a luxurious palace or building of stone, but the chaste womb of the Virgin, and then the lowly stable and manger.
What are the weapons and the victorious accomplishments of this conquering King? Not armies marching or battles won, but the Cross and its defeat of sin and death.
Who are the royal descendants of this King’s unending line? Not kings and queens but you and me, the King’s very body, the Church, here today thousands of years later and destined to last until the end of the age!
When the events of human history don’t seem to add up – when we feel like we are merely the victims of our circumstances, and everything is going so wrong that it seems God couldn’t possibly be the Lord of history. Or when good things seem to be happening, but in ways we could never have imagined or foreseen, we like Mary, might ask: “how can this be?”
At times like that we need to be reminded of the angel’s assurance to Mary: “nothing will be impossible for God.” God is trustworthy and keeps His promises. He is powerful enough to accomplish His will even amidst an imperfect world, even amidst the sufferings and misunderstandings of human history, in ways more mysterious and wonderful than we could ever know.
But perhaps the most astonishing, most unthinkable, most unbelievable thing is that He chooses to do this, to accomplish His will, through human persons throughout history – through David, and Mary and Joseph, and through you and me.
God’s angel greets Mary and announces God’s plan for her – announces His desire to accomplish the magnificent fulfillment of His promise, and the salvation of all creation through her. And for a moment, God waits – all creation waits for her reply.
God has some specific plan for each and every human person. Just as He did with Mary so long ago, God invites each of us to bring His Son into the world – to in some way help achieve His plan of salvation. And He waits for our answer. Sometimes for minutes, or hours, or years.
This Advent and Christmastide are our chance to respond. They are our chance to say, “Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Lord of history. Yes, Lord, I believe that you will fulfill your promise. Yes, Lord, let it be done to me according to your Word.”
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