“O marvelous exchange! Man’s creator has become man, born of a virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” (Liturgy of the Hours, Antiphon I of Evening Prayer for January 1) This is the profound mystery we celebrate at Christmas. As we continue our Advent preparation, let us reflect on the significance of the mysteries surrounding the Incarnation, specifically on the poverty of Jesus, the virginity of Mary and obedience of Joseph.

It is a profound mystery that “man’s Creator has become man.” Although God could have come among us in any fashion, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father deigned that the Son be born to an ordinary woman betrothed to a humble carpenter in a small, cold stable in an insignificant town. “In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator.” (Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings on Christmas Day, from a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope)

It was not by accident that Jesus was born in poverty as a helpless infant. We have much to learn from Jesus’ humble beginnings. As a poor child, Jesus reminds us that he came for all people, not just for a particular group, race or nation. As a baby who cannot yet speak, Jesus teaches us that to begin to grasp the meaning of the Word made flesh we must spend some time in silent meditation. Thus, paradoxically, the Word teaches us the importance and beauty of silence.

As a child totally dependent on Mary and Joseph, Jesus reminds us that “we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become ‘children of God’ we must be ‘born from above’ or ‘born of God.’ Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 526) Above all, the material poverty of the infant Jesus points to a more profound divine poverty in which we have the privilege of participating: “We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” (Offertory of Mass)

If the poverty of Jesus teaches us many truths, we can also learn from the virginal way in which the Son of God was conceived and born. “From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived ‘by the Holy Spirit without human seed.’ The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own.” (Catechism, No. 496)

Virginity was not forced on the Blessed Mother; rather Mary embraced her virginal motherhood with her whole mind, heart, body and soul. As St. Augustine so eloquently expressed: “Christ is truth, Christ is flesh: Christ truth in the mind of Mary, Christ flesh in the womb of Mary” (Sermon 25) Pope John Paul II notes: “Mary is worthy of blessing by the very fact that she became the mother of Jesus according to the flesh...but also and especially because already at the Annunciation she accepted the word of God, because she believed it, because she was obedient to God, and because she ‘kept’ the word and ‘pondered it in her heart’ (cf. Lk. 1:38, 45; 2:19, 51) and by means of her whole life accomplished it.” (Mother of the Redeemer, No. 20)

Mary is “ever-virgin” not only in receiving Jesus as the fruit of her womb, but also in giving birth to our Savior. “The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man. In fact, Christ’s birth ‘did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.’” (Catechism, No. 499; Lumen Gentium, No. 57)

As part of God’s plan, Mary’s virginity “manifests God’s absolute initiative in the Incarnation.” (Catechism, No. 503) Moreover, Mary’s virginity points to the participation in the divine life through faith which is “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13) In this way, it becomes clear that the “acceptance of this life is virginal because it is entirely the Spirit’s gift to man. The spousal character of the human vocation in relation to God is fulfilled perfectly in Mary’s virginal motherhood.” (Catechism, No. 505)

As we contemplate the Incarnation, we also ponder the obedience of Joseph. Before the angel appeared to him (Mt 1:20-21), Joseph had no reason to think that his marriage to Mary would be extraordinary. Yet, with the angel’s words and Joseph’s obedient acceptance of them, Joseph, like Mary, became a guardian of the amazing mysteries of the Incarnation. Joseph took Mary “in all the mystery of her motherhood. He took her together with the Son who had come into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this way he showed a readiness of will like Mary’s with regard to what God asked of him through the angel.” (John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, No. 3)

May the remaining days of Advent and the coming Christmas season be an occasion for all of us to enter prayerfully into the mysteries of the Incarnation so beautifully revealed in the poverty of Jesus, the virginity of Mary and the obedience of Joseph.

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