How will you be transformed by the coming of the Lord?
After their exile in Babylon, the people longed for
restoration, for a messiah, for one who
is to be ruler in Israel. The prophet Micah shares with them the promise of
salvation: there is one who is to give
birth to a savior, he tells the people, and he shall be peace, a gift that will transform them. In Luke's Gospel, Elizabeth likewise
recognizes the coming of the Messiah as her child leaps in her womb at the arrival of her pregnant cousin Mary. Elizabeth is transformed by the Holy Spirit
working in her; she is redefined by her encounter with her Savior.
Our readings this weekend challenge us, not to figure out who the Messiah is so much as who we will be once the Messiah has
come. Give us new life, the psalmist prays in Psalm 80: it is a prayer for transformation. The Incarnation redefines us as human beings;
Christmas redefines who we are, to this day.
Why? Because we are still being
transformed by the power of God's love in us -- most obviously at Eucharist, which
is our participation in Jesus's body, in its death, rising, and
transformation. We are that Body, the
Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, and the more deeply we enter into that
reality, the more we ourselves are transformed.
More still: by our participation
in the Body of Christ, the world itself is transformed. The authors of the Didache prayed, and so may we be: broken to feed the many. We are brought together in the Body of Christ
to become food, spiritual food, for the world.
In this sense, Incarnation is not
complete; it is being continued in us, through us, as we are transformed daily
by the coming of the Lord, in Eucharist, in our hearts, in our very wombs.
How will you be transformed by the coming of the Lord?
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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