In the Book of Genesis God says, "Let us make man in our image." Note the "us." God is speaking from His Trinitarian voice even in the first book of Scripture. Out of this image, "Male and female He created them." Genesis brings us immediately into this awareness that somehow the creation of man and woman together can point us to the Holy Trinity.
A child is the fruition of a man's physical gift of life as the initiator and a woman's receptivity, union, and nurturing of this gift within herself. The man is drawn to the woman out of love and he gives himself to her because of love. The child is the fruit of love, the fruit of two persons giving and receiving each other.
The dynamic of self-gift leads our minds and hearts closer to contemplating the reality of the Trinity. God the Father is the initiator of the gift. Jesus the Son receives the gift, and in return, is a gift to His Father. The love that eternally spirates between and from the two of them is the Holy Spirit--the eternal and infinite Fruition of Love between the Father and the Son.
The love between Joseph and Mary is the perfection of human self-gift and love. The fruit of their love is also at the same time the fruit of the love between Mary and the Holy Spirit, which is the self-gift between human and Divine. And as Jesus consisted of every perfection in both his humanity and his Divinity, his very being pronounces the perfection of the love of his human parents.
Joseph, Mary, and Jesus then are the perfect human image of the Holy Trinity. They are also the passageway through which we all enter into communion with the Holy Trinity.
. . . Joseph, Mary, and Jesus stand at the center of space and time, and history flows outward from their existence.
How is your love imperfect?
Whenever I chose my own self-centered, grasping desires over the good of another person. When I chose a physical need over a spiritual need and miss an opportunity to make an offering of myself to God.
Who are you called to make the greatest gift of self to in your particular vocation?
To Jesus in the daily offerings in prayer, solidarity in suffering, and expressions of gracious joy. To my brother whom I live with.
How can you give more of yourself today than you did yesterday to be faithful to who you are called to love?
Engage my brother in longer conversations. Offer him something as a gift or prepare one for him for Christmas. Invite him to celebrate Advent and make a good Confession.
Follow through on my commitments to prayer, fellowship, and asceticism.
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