Virgin Mary

Much of the birth narrative of Jesus is overly sanitized, in my humble opinion, and we gloss over the essence of the moments and of the language used to describe them. For example, the term virgin in description of Mary which is incomprehensible. I dare not presume to understand the miracle of the virgin birth, but I have found enlightenment in descriptions of the conditions of a virgin soul, particularly in Thomas Merton's poignant explanation of le point vierge, the virgin point of a human being. Merton suggests that a soul that is virginal is one that has a purity almost beyond all understanding, somewhat like a virgin birth. Merton says,

“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our Son-ship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely…I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.ⁱ”

I believe that in Mary, God found favor because of her "point of pure truth, a pure diamond that blazed with the invisible light of heaven." To that point, God was drawn and anointed her womb to be the one that would bear the Christ child, anointing her to be Theotokos, the God Bearer.

Our preparation for the birth of the Christ child must include accessing that point of purity, that virgin point of absolute poverty, nothingness where God can pitch God's tent within us and be birthed through us into the world by our words and actions, our relationships and our love. Thus we pray in the Collect appointed for this 4th week of Advent:

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself...

And so perhaps we might pray that God's son Jesus Christ will find the mansion prepared for him as he comes into the world this Christmas, again for the first time.