Advent Reflection on Theotokos

A few weeks ago, I was commenting to my spiritual director that as we were approaching Advent, I found that I was thinking on the word "Theotokos". This is the Eastern Orthodox designation for Mary, the "God bearer" or simply "Mother of God". I've passed through the chapters in EfM on the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431, where Mary was officially stamped with the title of "Mother of God". And, like all actions in the church then and now, such a title had its supporters and detractors.
For me, though, this title conjures up an image of the Advent preparation which is decidedly "mother-like". Because as I reflect on Advent, I see it as being a bit like pregnancy. There is a seed, a branch of Jesse's root, planted in each of us which is growing. As we move through these days leading to Christmas, we are (or should be) nourishing this growing Christ within us. How? Any number of ways. For me, it is through prayer and meditation and making the effort to look people in the eye, and quiet my interior so that I may hear and see the other person. To recognize that Christ within them that shines like the Advent candles through their eyes. I have had some great experiences of this. Recently, I was tapped to be on our stewardship committee; hence I've had conversations with people at St. John's who were total strangers to me. But by the time we'd talked, the stranger became like a member of my extended family. And now the neurons in the body of Christ were talking to one another, building the tissues that will form the muscles of this body. With these kinds of connections, the Christ within is growing... not just inside me as I reach out to make contact with new people, but inside the community as a whole as we become more and more connected. It's a lot harder for the hand to say to the foot, "I have no use for you" when the hand knows more about the foot's function!
In Luke's gospel account of the annunciation, we hear that Mary was "perplexed" by the message from Gabriel that she was about to give birth to the Lord of the Most High. Can you blame her? And yet, despite any misgivings or fear of what all was being revealed and what her future might hold, Mary responded like all the prophets by stating, "Here am I".
As I look to this Advent season, I have many worries and concerns about my future, given the new political climate hanging over our fair city. But, like Mary, I will not turn away from allowing Christ to grow within me, in the hope that come Christmas morning, I will have prepared the way to give birth--figuratively--to the spirit of Christ that is growing in me during this season. May it be so.