I love celebrating seasons of the church. Not because they mark historical dates but because they remind us of themes we can forget in our faith life. Think of how ridiculous celebrating dates as historical markers is? The Feast of The Immaculate Conception didn't even exist until 1476. The room for historical error, especially considering the historical accuracy of the times was plainly high. And even beyond that, the rediculously short pregnancy, or rather long pregnancy, considering that Christmas is less than a month away, would be odd indeed. Even more, why would it be at all important to your faith life to believe that Mary concieved on the 8th of December? Some people look at this and use it as evidence for why all of us religions types are crazy but they forget it's all about reminding us of themes.
On December 8th we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. A teacher of mine had us sing Happy Birthday. Being a man much consumed in the significance of actions he didn't tell us why we were singing, but my guess is we were reiterating the point that life begins at conception and that celebrating Jesus' coming. Most folks would sing Happy Birthday to Jesus of December 25th, but not at my school! But when I got beyond the pithy humor I was glad to be reminded of the theme of the day: The Virgin Mary. It struck me that she was perfect, without any sin. I can't go a day without sinning, and when ever I think I do I know my conscience has grown lax. And think of how lucky a guy Joseph was to marry a perfect women! There was a new post up at Modestly Yours that day and it became plain to me that The Virgin Mother cares about those women and how they act and dress. That she would even care about us is miraculous: God at least made us... you could (hubristicly and probobly hereticly) say he has a vested intrest in our success but what does Mary care about us? And if Mary cares about us so much and has so little reason to how can man care so little about his fellow man when he has all the reason in the world?
Advent!
December 10, 2008 | |
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1 comments:
Well, just to inform you- not to say that your post wasn't beautiful and had you not been confused it wouldn't be half so enlightening to you- but the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary's conception- not Jesus'. That's why the dates are funny. The feast of the Annunciation (Jesus' conception) is indeed 9 months before Christmas. And I still find it odd that one would sing happy birthday on a conception day- because- a person isn't born until he is born- but I suppose there isn't any "happy beginning of life day" song. Lame. You should write one.
ps St. Joseph is pretty much the coolest and I wish I was better friends with him.
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