December 1, 2024
Image: Tianna Williams, reflection by M. E. Collingwood, ARCWP
By directing our minds to the coming of Jesus during this Advent Season, we totally miss the point that Advent time is really about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who made his birth possible. It is about her unexpected pregnancy and carrying this new life, waiting for her child to be born. It is about her body cradling and protecting this precious life growing and maturing in her womb. It is about waiting for the birth of this infant under very trying circumstances. It’s about her willingness to do this. And we wait with her, anticipating the effects of this new life on ourselves, as well as pondering its impact on our world.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception which is celebrated during this time, centers on the belief that Jesus’ mother, Mary, was conceived without sin — which at the time of the promulgation of this teaching in Dec. of 1854 by Pope Pius IX, meant that Mary was not born with original sin as is the rest of humanity.
The story begins with the premise that because Eve was curious and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree that God made off limits to her and Adam, sin entered the world — and this act of Eve caused all children born from then on to be born in sin — kind of a hereditary disease of sort… This bizarre idea was the rationale used thousands of years after the first human being evolved into being, when people began pondering how evil came to be. It had to be explained somehow — after all, people made poor choices and acted badly. They sinned. Let’s put the blame on the women who were thought and treated as less than men. And so, this mythical story was developed to satisfy the patriarchal times and still constitutes the background of the Church’s teaching on “original sin.”
A teaching based on the literal interpretation of the Genesis story.
Our wise Creator of the Universe fashioned human beings who were given a free will — to choose what they wanted to do, think, and believe — not always making good choices, not always making choices that reflected the goodness of their Creator. In fact, some of their choices were and continue to be downright evil. So, why did they hang all this on the mythical woman, Eve? Were those promoting this false premise refusing to take responsibility for their own sinful actions?
Now, let’s think this through:
#1: The story of Adam and Eve is a myth in the sense that it is a story that attempts to explain a certain religious truth, although the story line isn’t necessarily true. So over thousands of years, there were men who decided they would write down how and why they came to believe the things they held as true. Their stories were created by the imagination of the practitioners of patriarchy to explain how it could have happened. Again, with no understanding that all human beings had a free will to choose their actions; rather, entrenched in the mindset that the sin of the world was introduced through a woman.
#2: The Church has always considered sexual intercourse as a necessity to populate the earth, but historically never as being a holy action — the expression of love and devotion between two people. It wasn’t until Vatican II did the purpose of intercourse include the love between a couple, considered by most as a secondary intent. Instead, the men perceived through instinct, observation, and personal experience that when they were in the throes of sexual activity, they did not have complete control over their minds and actions. In ancient times, not having complete control was not considered good for anyone, and certainly not holy. In fact, experiencing sexual climax was considered an insane moment, and the wiles of women were to blame.
Furthermore, if Christianity was to proclaim that the Son of God was to be born, the woman who would carry this child in her womb must be without blemish of any sin — after all, it was thought absolutely impossible that this God-baby could ever rest and grow within a sinful environment, especially, a woman’s womb! Interesting that Jesus was born into a world full of sin and primarily ministered to and made friends with sinners that he depended on to spread his Good News!
#3: Now if you are following all of this, you also know that women of a certain age bleed every month, and the Hebrew understanding was that women were deemed unclean during this time. Paradoxically, they also held fast to the belief that blood was considered a life source. Yet it was still considered tantamount for the Church to teach that this woman, Mary of Nazareth, be remembered as a spotless virgin. The God-baby could never be born from the insanity of sexual intercourse, let alone from an unclean vessel. And, if that’s the case, then did Mary bleed every month, as most women of childbearing age do, or was that taken away from her? As you know, experiencing pregnancy and birthing a child requires a rich blood supply.
This unfortunate story is contrary to every facet of how the Creator fashioned the woman’s body to nurture her developing baby. Nutrients come through the blood — the life source — flowing freely through her body. Each month she sheds the blood that reminds her that the life source abides within her. That’s just a fact. That’s the way women are created — as a co-creator with our loving God. And God said, this is very good!
Because we are still living in times where men believe they must direct and dominate women as it pertains to their sexual lives and religious practices:
Could it possibly be that the authors of such teachings need to keep women in their place and maintain control over the common people by convincing them that they were not conceived from an “original blessing,” but from an “original sin?”
Could it possibly be that they feel the need to keep control using male domination to dictate what holiness really means?
Could it possibly be that they did not, and still do not, believe that women are fully human, equally created, and holy?
What we want to remember and anticipate during this holy season of Advent my friends, is not the claim that Mary was a virgin and God placed a bloodless embryo in her body; but rather the wonderful, creative event when the young Mary of Nazareth became unexpectantly pregnant yet made a decision to nourish her innocent unborn child with the nutrients from her body, and experiencing horrific cultural barriers under unbelievable suffering, birthed a baby, her son, Jesus.
Yes, hope is reborn with every new birth!
And we, as the holy people of God, can provide that hope for one another. We are pregnant with new life and energy; we nourish one another by our companionship and community worship — giving of our very selves for the continued life of the world.
The Word of God in the wilderness is being spoken today to and through women as it was then with the assumed barren Elizabeth who is presented as old, married, and pregnant, and Mary — young, pregnant, and betrothed.
Like them, let us not be afraid to dream dreams and engage visions that are the foundation of our prophetic voices to proclaim the loving tenderness of our God who continually comes to be with us. Emmanuel.
O come, O come, Emmanuel — (piano/cello) The Piano Guys — video link Arrangement written by Marshall McDonald and Steven Sharp Nelson Arrangement produced by Al van der Beek, Jon Schmidt, and Steven Sharp Nelson Performed by Steven Sharp Nelson: Cello & Jon Schmidt: Piano
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