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4th Sunday in Advent Luke 1/39-45 |
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| Background: Mary's role in Catholic Christianity is to reflect the mother love of God. She suggests that God loves us indeed like a daddy, but also like a mommy. The ground of being, the infinite, the absolute, the igniter of the Big Bang is something like the love of a mother for a new born babe. If this be true, it is very good news indeed, very exciting good news. This is what the Madonna image we see on all sides at this time of the year really means. God is paternal, yes indeed, but God is also maternal. As long as there is a possibility that God loves this way the narrative symbol that embodies this story will never go away. Attempts to finesse Mary out of the Catholic heritage as excess ecumenical baggage will never work. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time there was a young woman who heard that her cousin, a woman in her middle forties, was about to have a baby. She also heard that the cousin had to say in bed through the whole pregnancy. The young woman took a leave of absence from her job and traveled across the country to help her cousin. At first the older cousin was delighted, especially since her husband had to travel every week on business. However, the younger woman, alas, turned out to be a bossy, busybody. She took total charge of the house. She rearranged the furniture, repainted the kitchen, bought new drapes, tore up the flower garden, drew up a "healthier" memo, insulted the husband when he was home, and offended neighbors who wanted to be helpful. She drove the pregnant woman up the wall every day, especially with full volume rock music. But, said the older cousin, the more young woman meant well. She just had to take charge of everything. Finally her husband said, hey, it's either her or me. And the doctor said, get rid of her our you'll lose your baby. So they sent the young woman home. She was furious. They were terrible ingrates. Later when a healthy baby boy was born, they invited the younger cousin to be godmother. She bluntly refused. |
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