Advent as a state of Being
A meditation on living in the newness of life
Context and Frame
I am a Christian who grew up Baptist, converted to Catholicism, left the church and built a new home in Creation Spirituality. My lineage of faith come from many wells I drew inspiration from to build a life of meaning for myself. I offer these thoughts as a reflection on how I have come to see Advent. I ask that you practice deep ecumenism with me listen to my ideas in the context they are offered, then compare them to your own and if you feel so inclined, please share your insights so we can grow together.
Sacramental Days
Holy Days are more than just Holidays to me. While I love the food and the fellowship they offer, their real power is that on some level we have collectively agreed that these are the days to focus on a particular topic or event. The lineage and energy we invest into these days empowers them to offer us special insight and grace that would not be available to us on other days.
This collective energy makes the day special and the day makes this collection of energy possible. If we choose to participate in these Holy Days we can draw one as much energy as we bring to the day. We exchange our participation for the blessings, grace, and wisdom of the day.
It isn’t always easy for us to participate and have the mindfulness to access this power, which is why the most important Holy Days have seasons associated with them to give us the space and time to access the grace in our own time.
The Holy Days have the same sacramental value as our own Baptism.
When we take the time to meditate on the mysteries opened to us on the Holy Days, God imparts the grace of that particular mystery into our lives and hearts. Through the Holy Days, we live the mysteries of the faith and claim those mysteries in our lives.
The Life of the Body of Christ on Earth must mirror the lives of Jesus and Mary.
This Power and Grace is called Viriditas.
Viriditas literally means, “greenness.” Hildegard of Bingen uses this word to talk about our physical and spiritual health as well as the Green Wisdom and Grace God offers us to keep us ever growing in wisdom and life more abundantly.
On these holy days, we tend the gardens of our hearts and have a special access to this greening.
The Immaculate Conception
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is December 8th, in the early days of Season of Advent, because it is important for us see its connection to the Nativity.
The Advent would not be possible without the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Apostle Paul calls Jesus the new Adam (1 Cor 15:45), and says that all Christians are a new creation of God, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, they have become new (2 Cor 5:17)." We vastly underestimate this newness of life.
But we left the garden
In the creation story in Genesis, we are told that God created humanity in its image, and then we are told that Adam and Eve sinned through eating the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Before that, Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. God is unity. "Shema Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Achad." "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is Unity (Deut 6:4)."
The nature of Adam and Eve was one of the unity of God. When they ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their perception of the world changed. No longer did they see the Unity of God in all things, but they saw the world in terms of dualism: us and them, this and that, good and evil. The problem of evil enters into the world.
Now we either see everything as part of an essential oneness (which often overlooks individuals and turns to evil), or we see the obvious separateness of the world (which often overlooks commonality and leads to evil). We are mired in this to the point that all we can see is ether oneness or duality.
This “fall from the Garden" occurs in all of our lives. We often call it the end of innocence.
If we are honest, it isn’t a fall, it is a departure. Some of us walk out of the garden while others are cast out, often without our choice or fault. We are all born with a memory of the unity we came from. The light of God shines from the face of all newborns, but our lives serve to distract us from this light so we forget that God is in all things and all things are in God.
Turning Creation Upside Down
The Immaculate Conception turns the creation upside down. This is the moment God begins the new creation. In Genesis, we read that God created Adam from the earth, and then created Eve from his side. With the Immaculate Conception, God re-creates Mary the woman, separating her from the previous creation. She becomes the New Eve: the new Mother of all living, and Jesus Christ, the new Adam, comes from her.
“I am the Immaculate Conception.”
At Lourdes, when St Bernadette asked our Lady, "Who are you?"
Our Lady replied, "I am the Immaculate Conception."
What a marvelous revelation!
She did not say "I am the product of the Immaculate Conception," she said, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Why?
She is the Mother of the new creation. She is the beginning.
What does this mean for our story? Mary never left the garden. She lived her life knowing her life was a branch growing from the Sacred Vine of God. It does not mean that she was born without Original Sin, because there is no original sin.
No. She lived in blessed union with the Divine. She lived the life Christ prayed we would all have, that we would be One with God in the same way he is (John 17:21-23). She is truly our Divine Mother, our Co-Redemptrix.
What are we redeemed from if not original sin? Sin itself. Missing the mark. The basic and simple error that we are separated from God and from each other.
A Virgin Conceived
When the Archangel announced that Mary would bear the Son of the Most High, he told her that the Spirit of God would overshadow her. Behold, a Virgin conceived. Why? This is the opposite of the first creation. Mary the new Eve was created anew through the Immaculate Conception, and Jesus, the new Adam is born from her side, or more specifically, in her womb.
Many modern and post-modern people return to error at this point in the story. They bring up historicity and biology, and debate whether such a miracle can happen. Why?
The births of Jesus and Mary are mysteries. Like love, compassion, and justice, a mystery has no historical or tangible dimension. Mysteries are meant to speak past of rational discursive minds and talk directly to our spirits. The most important aspect of a mystery is that we can participate in them. The Immaculate Conception and Nativity happen every day.
Through these mysteries, the exile from the Garden is undone.
Our Exile into Duality
Whether it is the rampant disenchantment the world preaches at us, or the traumas of our lives, so many of us experience this exile from the garden at some point in our lives. While many of us have found our way home, there are so many perils seeking to drive us from the garden again.
Beyond Eden, we walk through this world of duality. Duality cannot be undone by the contrast of unity with duality. Instead, God demonstrates the Nonduality of the world through paradoxes. The Mother of God will give birth to her Creator. The Virgin will be a mother. The world is redeemed through the execution of an innocent man as a criminal. The teachings of Jesus are full of such statements: Those who mourn are comforted, the meek shall inherit the earth, the first shall be last, and so on.
In the advent, we turn around to see the Nonduality of God where the unity and the individuality of the world are seen to be true simultaneously.
This Holy Mystery is not a one-time event. At our Baptism, the Spirit of Christ is conceived in our heart. Just as Mary brought Jesus into her world, we bring Jesus into our own.
During Advent, we do not only commemorate an event that happened two thousand years ago, we also remember that Christ has been conceived in our heart. In this time, we remember that the mission of the church is as Paul said, "My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you (Gal 4:19)."
Tending the Tree of Life
St Louis de Montfort says that our baptism the seed of the Tree of Life is planted in our heart and that it is our duty to tend this tree and help it to grow. Mary is the Tree of Life and Jesus is the fruit of this tree. We water this tree with our devotion, and their is no greater devotion than compassion.
May this Advent season bring you blessing and hope as we hold the Light of God in our hearts and share it with the world. May the tree of life grow within you and give you the strength and courage to do the great work you are called to do.
The Path to this realization started here:
