The teaching of the Virgin Birth is primarily a statement about who Jesus is. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke both tell that Jesus was born of a virgin. While Matthew’s story focuses on the character of Joseph, Luke’s focus is on Mary. Both narratives and the Creed reflect upon the human and divine origins of Christ.
 
Matthew describes how an angel appears to Joseph in a dream reminding him of Isaiah’s prophecy: “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Immanuel.” This prophecy from six centuries before Christ’s birth was originally understood to refer to a new king in David’s line. Matthew asserts that God’s prophecies have an importance that extends beyond the concerns of the present.
 
In Luke’s story of the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary, who freely gives her consent to God’s plan: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; may it be done unto me according to thy word.”  The Second Vatican Council insisted that Mary was “not a passive instrument (Lumen Gentium §56).” The miraculous conception of Christ was not something that was done to her, rather, she actively cooperated with Grace.
 
While the two narratives are very different, both Matthew and Luke sought to connect Christ to the Davidic dynasty, and key to both narratives was the Spirit’s role in his conception.  Jesus was one with God from the beginning.  He did not become God as time went on, nor was he merely an adopted Son.  Both stories make clear that God works in unexpected ways to advance the course of salvation history.  

“O come, O dayspring from on high, and cheer us by your drawing neigh…” Our churches are decorated purple with the color of the night sky just before dawn and resound with hymns from centuries past. The longest coldest nights are during this season and the green of the summer has been put away. While we await the arrival of morning we cannot ignore that this is a season of greater darkness. This is our experience of beginnings and ends. This is how we celebrate the arrival of new things, we wait in hope.

During advent we are presented with an image of Christ who is both final judge and infant in his mother’s womb. We are reminded that the action of Jesus the Christ is the action of ‘The Origin’ entering into Time. The truth of history is brought to the light of day by his birth. The way Christ comes into the world presents a model for all people. What is to be done, what has taken place, what is to take place are all shown in this one life.

“Christ may be born in Bethlehem a thousand times, but if he is not born in you, you will be lost for all eternity just the same.” During advent we prepare for the Incarnation and recognize that it also depends on if we decide to embody it in our lives. Will we allow Christ to be born in us? Will we see our neighbor as someone beloved by the father? Are we willing to see ourselves as God see us? How will we treat the ultimate reality when it comes to meet us?

The life of Christ shows us there has to be a transformation of the temporal, a transformation of the ordinary. It is not good enough to simply do the same as I have always been doing. Now is the time to start again seriously. I must learn to wait in the present and listen to the eternal. I must learn to see myself as Christ sees me, to see my neighbor as Christ sees him. We must learn how to await a future that is always coming. No moment is totally fulfilled. Everything is pointing beyond itself. During this season we sense the approach of something final.

The purple night unveils the reality of a star rising in the East. This is our invitation to respond to a call for a renewed attempt to give bodily form to the idea of Christ. This is a season pregnant with Christ’s return in judgement. The return will be the precise expression of the final implementation of what has already and always been taking place within history. We need to see our role in the fluid motion coming from God and returning to him. "Veni, veni, O Oriens; Solare nos adveniens...”