12/20/09

The Christmas story is about the birth of the most unique human being in all of history. Jesus Christ is singularly unique in that he is the only person who was born of a virgin and the only person who can rightfully be called the Son of God and the Savior of the world. When Mary conceived her child by a work of the Holy Spirit, she participated in the greatest miracle of all time. She was to give birth to a human child who was also fully divine and the one who would be the Savior of the world. But not everyone saw it that way. Mary had a lofty mission but others thought she had been unfaithful to her betrothed. Even Joseph, her fiance had to be straightened out by a divine message affirming Mary’s purity her pregnancy notwithstanding.

But Mary did not have to go it alone. As a young woman she was “carrying,” perhaps, more than any one person could bear. But God made provision for her in that along with her now convinced fiance, Mary was given another woman who could support her. Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah, became her confidant and, perhaps, her spiritual mentor. Mary needed Elizabeth to strengthen her faith and to affirm her role in the birth of the Messiah. Elizabeth was “well along in years” (Luke 1:7), yet she who was barren was now pregnant with John who would became the great Baptist. She understood Mary. She had empathy for Mary who was vulnerable to the very serious charge of adultery. She was that steadying influence that Mary needed. Elizabeth by virtue of her own “miracle pregnancy,” accepted Mary’s credibility. She could identify with her young relative. Mary needed that. Meanwhile, Mary’s mere appearance before Elizabeth was enough for Liz to be filled with the Holy Spirit and joyfully experience the full significance of what was happening to her. Even Elizabeth’s unborn child anticipated his own future role as forerunner to the Messiah by his own joyful “leap of faith” (Luke 1:39-45).

The faith that these women shared was mutually supporting. This is the story of the church. We need each other. Your perseverance in the face of adversity, and my steadfastness in spite of my shortcomings, are mutually supportive. Just as Mary and Elizabeth were soul sisters, we, too, are partners in the preservation and propagation of the faith. We need each other just as the two heroines in the Christmas story needed each other. We are called to walk arm in arm on the pathway to glory and if one seems to stumble, the other holds her up. Being surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses from the past and the present (Hebrews 12:1) upholds our own spiritual pilgrimage and sustains us when we tread a seemingly lonely path. But thank God, we don’t have to go it alone.