Fourth Day of Christmas - 12/28

IT COSTS SO much to be a full human being that there are very few who have
the courage to pay the price. One has to abandon
altogether the search for security and reach out to the risk of living with
both arms open. One has to embrace the world like a lover. One has to accept
pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the
cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to
total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.

Morris West

This is one of my favorite quotes by one of my favorite authors {and I will apologize right now as the quote copy will make this post appear longer.} I love his beautifully written description of 'heart-courage.'  Courage, as a word, is derived from the French word 'couer' meaning heart.  All true  courage is grown in our heart. 


Faith requires courage; the courageous faith Mary, Joseph and Elizabeth had. The kind Zacharias did not have. It took time for Zacharias to cultivate courage in order to move from belief into faith. His growing of courage for living his faith took a few months, but oh how lovely when it took root and his tongue was loosened.  When he was asked the  name of the child, he responded as the angel had said (and he had rejected) and then prophesied about his son John who would be called the Baptizer: "And you child will be called prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God." (Luke 1:76-78)

Talk about courageous! Few people were more courageous than John the Baptist.  I wrote that sentence and then thought, actually scripture and most especially the Gospels and New Testament are full of courageous persons who risked everything to live their story, went through my mind. Come to think of it, the New Testament is actually the first set of action adventure Super Hero books.

What  was the story God gave these people in our scripture stories? What was the 'power' that made them the original super heroes?  One day the disciples asked Jesus what was the most important commandment.  And Jesus responded, "I give you but one command, love one another as I have loved you."  As I.  Three tiny letters forming an entire injunction of how to live for 'as' means in the manner of.  Love in the manner of Jesus. 

Now, I am fully aware I am not ever going to live and love as totally as Jesus, for even in human form, he was God: Emmanuel - God among us.  But, I don't think Jesus expected perfection of his disciples; I believe his expectation was passion, that they desire to love God as passionately as humanly possible. The capacity for loving passionately was their super power.

Again, like yesterday you might ask; what does this have to do with this little season of Christmas?  Haven't we skipped way ahead in the story?  Yes and no. Yes, we've skipped ahead but only to remind ourselves that the intention of these two beginning seasons in the liturgical calendar: Advent and Christmas, are to prepare ourselves for walking the full year of learning to live God's love. 

We prepare for our year's journey by cultivating courage of the heart,.  The need for heart-courage is one of the reasons I love that Zecharias is one of the major players in the Nativity Story.  I understand Zecharias: his rebellious and angry "how can this be?" when Elizabeth; barren all their married life and now past the age of conceiving tells him she is pregnant.  I understand Zecharias' demand for certainty when the angel announced to him that Elizabeth will have a son: "how will I know this for certain?" I can hear his mind thinking "prove this ridiculous thing to me" for I have also said that to God.  Zecharias believed, but he did not YET have faith in that which is irrational. True faith rarely makes rational sense when we go to LIVE it.

Again, we return to Mary, the woman of great quietly courageous faith, able to say yes to the unexpected Angel and yes to God and to conceive, and carry, and birth that which made no sense.  

Mary continued to do the action which had grown her courageous heart and spirit big enough to say yes to the angel: "she treasured up these things and pondered them in her heart."  This is how we begin to grow heart-courage: we pray and treasure up the inexplicable blessings of love given each day. We sit in stillness, rocking newly born life and ponder the mysterious unfolding of God in our own life.