It takes courage
Advent 3
“Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that often already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about: with a person, a future, a possibility in society, or with an unknown that begs us on and always has begged us on.”
David Whyte (Brain Pickings by Maria Popova)
In Advent, we read of announcements, dreams and visitations. A child of God is to bear God’s child. After her visit by the Angel, Mary hurried to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was also with child. Both women were living into their motherhood. Each had a role in bringing God into the world.
Mary sought the comfort and strength of Elizabeth’s home. In that place, in the presence of Elizabeth’s faith and wisdom, she knew she could share that which she felt deeply. She knew she could exclaim how magnificent this child would be. Mary knew Elizabeth would understand the courage it had taken to say “yes.”
They came together with some things already understood. These pregnancies were complicated and, yet, full of proclamation that a son would be born. And all of the excitement, deep within both women would be shared as support and encouragement. As Whyte so wisely describes, these beloved kin came together carrying their decisions and seeking support, “to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences.”
There was so much to do in preparation for these deliveries. These few days spent together might always be remembered as a gift. A moment to pause and honor the enormous roles they shared.