(A reflection based on Luke 1:39–45, 46b-55)

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.  His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly;  he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.  He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

One point of view is to see the Incarnation as a once off event. What if there is another point of view, another way to see the Incarnation? What if the Incarnation could also be the fulfilment of human history and the final goal of evolution?

Here is an over brief history of evolution: 

1.    Some 13.7 billion years ago, our Universe emerges out of a Great Mystery. Existence gives rise to space and energy. Energy cools into matter, sub-atomic particles emerge as radical new beings with new powers. Drawn into relationship, subatomic particles transform into atoms of hydrogen. Intense pressures act on hydrogen to fuse helium, a heavier atom. Atoms are new beings with new powers. 

2.    Fast Forward to 3.7 billion years later (10 billion years ago), interstellar dust produces molecules, the basis for later life. 

3.    Let’s fast forward even further. About 4.6 billion years ago our ancestral star goes supernova and gives birth to the sun, the earth, and our solar system. The earth and moon dance around each other and together waltz around the sun gathering mass as they go. After planetary crashes and more dancing, the moon and earth cool down. 

4.    An atmosphere forms giving rise to first rains. Earth comes alive. The earth learns to eat the Sun through photosynthesis. Bacteria and complex cells develop, entering communion with other cells. 

5.    Let’s summarise faster. 460 million years ago, plants and animals move on land.

6.    4 million years ago humanoids leave the forest, stand up, and walk on two legs. The savannah offers the challenges and opportunities for these early creatures to evolve into humans.

7.    100 thousand years ago consciousness develops. Evolution becomes conscious of itself. Modern Humans emerge. Language, shamanic and goddess religions, and art become integral with human life.

8.    Two thousand and twenty-five years ago, in about 4BCE, Mary and Elizabeth meet and sing and dance and laugh and celebrate a new stage in evolution. The new stage in evolution is this: the advent of a human being so open to the divine, so open to Spirit, that his consciousness will become divine consciousness. 

The point being made is this: Life on earth developed over millions of years to produce matter, then, plants, animals and then humans. A point in evolution was reached where consciousness emerged when evolution became conscious of itself. We are thinking creatures, and we inherit every stage of evolution. Just as all humans inherit consciousness as benefactors of evolutionary history, so too do we inherit divine consciousness. Divine consciousness, the marriage of our divine and human selves, is the goal of the universe as reveal in the Incarnation and birth of Christ. 

In the incarnation which Mary and Elizabeth sing and dance around, much like the moon and earth danced around the sun in the beginning, a new destiny of the universe is revealed – the marriage of the divine and human. 

What does all of this mean for us? 

Like Mary we are all pregnant with divine possibility. Mary is theotokos the mother of God but in many ways, she is out mother too. Like Mary we are all birthing Christ into the world in the new era of evolution which is the unity between our divine and human selves. 

Our capacity for transcendence, for growth, for authenticity and our continual desire for justice, truth and beauty in the world are all sacred signs of the divine within us. We discover the spiritual truth that we are in God, that our deepest identity and joy lies in living the truth that we are in God. The universal meaning of the Incarnation is converse, God is in us. As advent people, we are pregnant with the full flowering of God’s love, and we birth this Christ love into the world, moment by moment. How do we know when the Christ is birthed into the world? Ironically, those moments when we are fully human, moments of kindness, gentleness, and presence, are those moments when we are fully divine too. 

Welcome to the Glory of God, the birth of the ones fully alive, human and fully divine. 

Sources and further reading: 

·       Sister Lucy Slinger. The Cosmic Walk. 

·       Bede Griffiths. 

·       Ilia Delio. 

·       Ken Wilbur. 

·       Beatrice Bruteau. 

Irenaeus said the Glory of God is humanity fully alive, fully human, fully God (From Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies), 4. 34. 5-7.