Another Advent treasure

Elizabeth had been filled with the Spirit after she conceived, but Mary before, at the moment the angel had come. “Blessed are you,” said Elizabeth, “who believed”.

You too, my people, are blessed, you who have heard and who believe. Every soul that believes — that soul both conceives and gives birth to the Word of God and recognizes his works.

Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you, to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each one of you, to rejoice in God. According to the flesh only one woman can be the mother of Christ but in the world of faith Christ is the fruit of all of us. - from a commentary on Luke by St. Ambrose, bishop

(First of all: my apologies, St. Ambrose, if this reflection should go in a direction that would displease you. It occurs to me that perhaps I am being presumptuous in adding to the thoughts of the great saints. But then, I believe that it is the same Holy Spirit blessing me with insight that inspired theirs, so as I think more about it, I imagine they are pleased.)

At first there seemed not much to add, but I began to think about what happened after Christ was conceived in Mary's womb. He began to develop there, as her body naturally provided growth to his in the security of her uterus, as every mother's does for her preborn child. Likewise, when Christ is first spiritually conceived in us, he must grow before we are able to give spiritual birth. This is partly beyond our control and yet very much under it, as well, for while it is the Holy Spirit which gives growth to the presence of Christ within us, it is not so natural or automatic in us as the nurturing of the child within the womb. Rather, we must choose to participate in the process, allowing the Spirit to reveal to us those obstacles to Christ's growth within us. Thus St. Ambrose continues:

For every soul can receive the Word of God if only it is pure and preserves itself in chastity and modesty.

The soul that has been able to reach this state proclaims the greatness of the Lord just as Mary did and rejoices in God its savior just like her.

Of course, none of us reaches full purity of chastity and modesty in this life, but we embrace these, and humbly accept that God's desire for us is greater than the choices we might otherwise make for ourselves. Even in some cases as we make the only choice that appears possible to us knowing that it is counter to God's revealed will, in humility we ask God's forgiveness along the way and the Spirit's help in making a more trusting choice the next time. Just as Jesus did not reach full maturity within the womb of Mary, but continued to grow into his physical adulthood, so Jesus continues to grow in us after we have first allowed him to be born within us, as we continue to trust in him and come to know him more intimately through the time we spend in his presence.

(I'm torn here, a bit, between the translation at the Universalis site and that from my breviary. Apparently a different translation is used in Britain, or at least by Universalis Publishing. I have generally quoted my breviary in the past, but above I've used the online translation primarily due to ease of entry but also because of the severity of one passage: the previously quoted section began in my breviary, "Every soul receives the Word of God if only it keeps chaste, remaining pure and free from sin, its modesty undefiled." This is impossible except by the growth of Christ within the soul, which obviously requires the cooperation of each soul, but this wording seemed to present an inappropriate expectation of perfection in the believer. However, I prefer the clarity of the breviary's translation for the following passage, so that is the version I'm using here:)

In another place we read: Magnify the Lord with me. The Lord is magnified, not because the human voice can add anything to God but because he is magnified within us. Christ is the image of God, and if the soul does what is right and holy, it magnifies that image of God, in whose likeness it was created and, in magnifying the image of God, the soul has a share in its greatness and is exalted.

It probably bears reiteration that, while the individual soul's cooperation with this process is an essential prerequisite, the entire process is still God's grace at work, just as it was in Mary's life. The initial inspiration of the Holy Spirit is a gift of God to us. The first stirring and submission of our will to this initial inspiration is likewise God's gift of grace; though it requires our choice, the very free will to make that choice is also God's gift. The resulting desire of our hearts to please God is a gift of God; as is the thought processes and the humility that allow us to trust that God knows better than we do, and the strength and conviction to then act on that belief; and the resulting growth of Christ in us that allows him to be born into the world in and through us, while requiring our cooperation along the way, is still entirely the gift of God. This is a stumbling block for our prideful insistence on getting full credit for what we do, yet our insistence that it must be up to us is a huge obstacle to God's growth within us. It's opposite obstacle is when we just wait for God to do it all without engaging our own cooperation in the process. Between these two impassable mountains is a peaceful valley path that follows the stream of Living Water, where we find our sustenance and growth in the confident knowledge that this is all God's gift to us, and in this vale he is magnified within us.