Let Merry Christmas Be Heard Again

As children, we love hearing the same story over and over. One is to celebrate it in the inspired record of God’s wonderful action in the past. The second is its counter-cultural nature in our time and society. Real peace again comes from knowing the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Christ, to aid us and help us speedily recover, maneuvering through places of depression, anxiety, sadness, or despair. One day Mary has an extraordinary experience. No, God doesn’t give us permission to do any of that.

47 In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.

First, we will learn about his mother, Mary, the matriarch of our faith. Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “From the beginning of time, prophets have known that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, of His mortal mission, and of His Atonement for all mankind”. The remaining one in six say they aren’t sure whether Jesus was divine (18 percent). According to the Catholic encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908) the word first appeared in 1038 AD. So that must mean we’re just dupes celebrating a pagan ritual when we ignorantly think we’re gratefully celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Mary is the one who literally bore God into the world. “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”. And so many times those seemly undeserving people are saying, “Why me?” So trust to choose what He said in the Bible concerning you. Don’t forget God’s faithfulness; recall how He has brought you salvation, healing, protection, and provision.

After the angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to the Savior, she lifted a song of praise that included these words: “He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name” (Luke 1:49, NKJV). If Jesus is the sinless Son of God, how can we understand His cry of anguish, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” found in Matthew 27:45-46.

“Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”. In that culture at that time, she would have been greatly scorned at the very least.

She fled as a political refugee to Egypt to protect him from Herod’s sword. His repeated statement that she “kept these things and reflected on them in her heart” is his acknowledgement of the wisdom she had accrued after a lifetime of contemplating Christ and discerning his word in the world. “The Lord will give Him the throne of His ancestor David and He will rein over Israel forever, His kingdom will never end!” She was with him when he took his last, gasping breath on the cross. Consider the greatness of God’s love that drove him to divest himself of all his splendor and become like a man. His Atonement paid for the sin of Adam and won victory over death, assuring resurrection and immortality for all men. That’s what it meant for Mary to say “yes”. Through OMG: Center for Theological Conversation, she offers a place for individuals and groups, laity and clergy, to come for questions, conversation, and study, and she also regularly presents, blogs, and writes.

Mildred Moy and some of her companions have completed a fast and pilgrimage as the first step in this new apostolate blessed by Father Pierre and me. Then I sat very still and waited, which is hard for me. It is Mary, Joseph, and their entire community of faithful God fearing radicals who play as important a role as any in the making of our liberating king when they remind him that Spirit of the Lord is upon him.

Mary said, “Yes”, and through her, God’s love became flesh among us in the past. Not with angels and virgin births – that part is unrepeatable. Christ is coming. Christ is always entering a troubled world, a wounded heart. He keeps the promise to be with us. But again we must ask, “Why then the Cross?” I belong to the Lord, body and soul. Live and let live is my motto, and I do relish living longer here, if possible, minding my own business.