I have never paid much attention to December 23, except as a way through to what really mattered, namely Christmas (in my culture of origin, Christmas Eve is the emotional high-point of Christmas, when the family gathers, the Christmas tree candles \u2013 yes, real ones! — are lit, and presents are exchanged, all followed by a festive meal and midnight mass).<\/p>\n
This year, however, the reading from the Gospel according to Luke for December 23 really caught my attention.\u00a0 I have long thought that Elizabeth\u2019s astounding \u201cno\u201d (Lk 1:60), spoken resolutely in the face of traditional expectations and conventions, was one of the most important words spoken by a woman in the biblical record (and given that women\u2019s voices are gravely underrepresented, every word counts).\u00a0 In the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, Elizabeth\u2019s \u201cno\u201d is woven together with Mary\u2019s \u201cyes\u201d \u2013 and the juxtaposition becomes especially telling so shortly before Christmas.\u00a0 The two women stand at the beginning of something new in this Gospel: the Old Testament \u201cGod of the Fathers\u201d prepares to enter the world in Jesus of Nazareth and does so as a God of two mothers, miraculously pregnant with hope beyond all telling.<\/p>\n
I wonder whether Elizabeth and Mary together don\u2019t point us to a deep truth: namely, that fully saying \u201cyes\u201d to something \u2013 especially God\u2019s own vision for this world — always also has to include decisive \u201cnos.\u201d\u00a0 And I wonder what the \u201cnos\u201d in each of our lives are that need to be spoken, if we want to be ready to celebrate God\u2019s ultimate \u201cyes\u201d to the world, which we will encounter again this Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wonder whether Elizabeth and Mary together don\u2019t point us to a deep truth: namely, that fully saying \u201cyes\u201d to something \u2013 especially God\u2019s own vision for this world — always also has to include decisive \u201cnos.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgical-spirituality","category-liturgical-year"],"yoast_head":"\n