How would the world respond if we walked around
carrying the Child Jesus in our arms?
The prophet Zechariah probably never imagined that, when God came to dwell among us, stirring forth from his holy dwelling, he would do so in the form of a child, a babe in arms. But might Mary have had Zechariah’s prophecy in mind when the angel Gabriel came and said to her, the child to be born will be the Son of God, Emmanuel, God dwelling among us? Mary -- beautiful, embodied, blessed Mary -- said yes to God and yes to the Incarnation, yes to the invitation of God to dwell within her, that he might dwell among us.
Today we celebrate the Patroness of our parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a feast that, like all Marian feasts, is Christological. The Church teaches us that Mary’s love for her Son was and is perfect, the most perfect love humanly possible. St. Francis de Sales wrote that, the love of the Mother of Love surpasses that of all others. Is it any surprise, then, that most of our representations of Mary are of the Madonna and Child? What a moving portrayal of the love of God, embodied!
As we see around our church, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is generally depicted with the Christ child in her lap. Carmelite tradition has it that the first representation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel dates all the way back to St. Luke (circa 70-80 AD?, above), in the form of an icon he created that came into the possession of the Carmelite Order on Mount Carmel in Palestine. The Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel built a monastery there, dedicated to Mary under another title, Star of the Sea, but they were called Carmelites and Our Lady of Mount Carmel was their patroness. When the Carmelites were forced to flee Palestine in the early thirteenth century (due to a resumption of Muslim rule in that area), they took St. Luke’s icon with them and became mendicant friars in Europe, still under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Not long after, in 1251, St. Simon Stock, an English priest and prior of the Carmelites, became concerned about the survival of his order, and prayed to Mary. Carmelite tradition has it that Our Lady appeared to Simon and gave him a full-body scapular, with the promise that whoever died clothed in the habit would not suffer the fires of hell. This tradition evolved into lay use of the (much smaller) brown scapular. One imagines that Our Lady appeared to Simon Stock with the child Jesus on her lap, a sure sign of God’s mercy, peace, and protection bestowed upon the Carmelite community, God dwelling among them!
The medieval theologian Meister Eckhart once wrote, We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to the Son if I do not also give birth to Him in my time, in my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten by us.
Like Our Lady, our Patroness, we are invited to say yes to God’s will, yes to God’s love, yes to God’s Son dwelling among us and within us. We are to carry this Christ Child, begotten anew by us, with us always, so that we may reveal God’s loving mercy to our world by magnifying all that the Lord has done and continues to do in our lives, with us, in us, and through us.
May we hold that baby close, hug him gently to our breast, as Mary did, that he might be a beacon of peace, love, and mercy in our world!
Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel!
Image source 1: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Icon purportedly written by St. Luke the Evangelist, https://carmelourladysdovecote.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/story-of-the-miraculous-painting-of-our-lady-of-mount-carmel/
Image source 2: St. Simon Stock receives the brown scapular from Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Mill Valley (photo by Fr. Pat), https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.673491021482982&type=3
No comments:
Post a Comment