In the Gospel today, we hear God’s greatest secret – that he himself will be born as a Son to the Virgin Mary in order to save humanity. This reality is, of course, the very reason for the coming Christmas season celebrated by the whole world. Because we know it so well, it can be easy for us to forget that it was originally a secret. From the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, God had planned to save his people: he formed a covenant with them through Abraham; in Moses he gave them a law to follow; in David he raised up a king to rule over them. All of this was to prepare them for the final redemption, in which a Messiah would come to form God’s people to be a light to the rest of the world. But the wondrous secret – the greatest secret since the foundation of the world – was that this Messiah would be none other than God’s own Son. He would be born into time and history so that in a human way he might show us the depths of divine love, even by dying on a Cross, so that by rising again he could also raise us mere humans to the divine light of heaven.
And that is the Christmas story in a nutshell – the Christian story, too. It is what St. Paul describes as the “mystery kept secret for long ages” now revealed for all the world to believe. It is the realization of the the promise God makes to David to establish his line as unfailing; as the angel says to Mary, Jesus is the true heir to David and “of his kingdom there will be no end.” That God would plan, from all of time, to save his people by himself becoming part of his people, by desiring to walk among us – that is the joyous secret at last revealed, because of which we celebrate, in which we rejoice, by which we have our hope.
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| The Annunciation by George Lawrence Bulleid (1903) |
That God’s greatest secret has at last been made known does not meant that he does not still have joyful secrets to share with us. In Christ, he has revealed his great plan of salvation but how that plan unfolds for each of us is still a mystery to be encountered, to be lived out each day. His plan of redemption came to life in the birth of his Son, but it must be born anew in our lives – in the desires of our hearts, in the pursuits and endeavors of our day to day, in our relationships and encounters with each person we meet. All of that and more takes on a new character in light of this greatest secret made known, the great birth that announces God’s saving plan for you and for me.
The Christmas season feels very near now, but until it arrives we are called to continue our Advent preparation. Perhaps we do that best not by taking away from today’s readings a Scriptural insight or moral teaching, but an invitation to reflect anew upon the mystery of Christ’s birth – maybe according to how we are familiar with keeping a secret. Have we marveled at how God, the master planner of this surprise, has ordered all things well? Do we share in the mystery with eager anticipation, like a man planning to propose to his beloved? Do we treasure it with joy, like a couple who has not yet shared with their family that they are expecting?
Friends, in the end, God’s greatest secret is the one he wants us to share with everyone: the joy and love of his Son Jesus Christ. But perhaps we do that best only when we have taken time to reflect upon it ourselves, and thereby come to a new appreciation for its mystery and grandeur – this secret from long ago that still means so much for us today.
May this Eucharist, itself a mystery of the Lord’s coming to us, inspire us to await with joy and with faith the salvation that Mary’s Child has come to bring.
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