One of my favorite scriptural
passages is found in the Song of Songs
and is contained in the Mass reading for December 21:
The Lover
speaks: Arise, my beloved, my beautiful
one, and come.
Who is the Lover and to whom is
he speaking? These questions can be answered in at least three ways, and each
is valuable for our meditation.
(1) The Lover is God and he is
speaking to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This is particularly appropriate
on December 21, because the Gospel for today is the story of the Annunciation,
when God sends a message to Mary via the angel Gabriel: “Hail, full of grace!”
(2) You are the Lover and you
are speaking to the Lord, calling Him to come to the world, and most
importantly, to come to you and bring the fulfillment of all His promises, of
all the things you have been praying for during the season of Advent. How might
you be calling him to come to you today, and why?
(3) This is my favorite
interpretation and I have spent many years meditating on it: The Lord is the
Lover, and he is speaking directly to you. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come. Even in all your
imperfection and with all of your sins and weaknesses, he looks upon you and
you are beautiful to him, and beloved (as we recalled in Isaiah 43:4), and
precious and honored. He loves you and calls you to arise from your sleep, from
your neediness, from your brokenness and woundedness, and even from your resistance. Arise! Let your destiny as a beloved child of God come out from you
and arise and rest in his arms for a bit. Arise
and come! Go to Him. Forget all your cares and your problems and simply go
to Him and let Him take care of what needs attention in His way and in His
time. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful
one, and come! Hear him calling you from the grave at the end of time to be
reunited with your body and rest whole and entire in the Kingdom of heaven.
What else might he be saying to
you when he speaks those words? Rest in silence and peace, incline “the ears of
your heart” (Rule of St. Benedict) to his voice, and hear something that you
have never been able to hear before since you have been so busy and preoccupied
and distracted.
And let Him bless you this
Christmas and always.
Advance notice: I will be posting on the 22nd and 23rd
and then will take a Christmas Break until January 2 or 3.
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