Repetitious Prayer: The Crying out of Flesh and God

January 05, 2011 by Elizabeth Scalia

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God submits to Creation, in order to save it. No wonder the heavens were rent with a joyful song. No wonder shepherds and kings were amazed.

The Presentation: Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the temple. Imagine how difficult it was to stay hydrated while traveling even a short distance, especially for a new mother who is nursing her babe. One needed to know where all of the wells were, and to have water nearby. The Creator is dependent upon the very thing upon which his spirit moved in the beginning. God-made-Flesh is brought to the priests; Jesus is circumcised like every Jewish male, his foreskin shed. Even he, Son of Mary, Son of God, must be vulnerable, sensitively exposed to God and the world, in this way. Flesh is cut, blood is stanched, the baby yelps and is quickly embraced and consoled by his mother.

The God of All Consolations cries out in pain, completely vulnerable, allowing humanity to succor him. Anna and Simeon have been awaiting his appearance; they recognize the Incarnation, and Simeon speaks words that must simultaneously soothe and grieve Mary's heart. Her heart, after all, is his heart, too. He is us.

The Finding of Our Lord in the Temple: We jump ahead twelve years; the adolescent Jesus has stayed behind in Jerusalem. Three days he is there, mirroring the three days in the tomb.

I love that Mary and Joseph, who love Jesus and live with him, and who know him well, must still seek him out, like the rest of us. Flesh seeks after flesh and cries out, "where?" and then, "why do you? How could you?" Flesh seeks after God, and God is found, but not fully understood. Not only is God found, but God submits, because this God, over and over again, tries to teach us by his own example. As God yielded to Israel's obstinacy and gave them a King, so he yields to Mary and Joseph.

Later he will submit, again, flesh and blood surrendered, once for all; heart pierced, for the life of the world.

The lesson, over and over, is that fulfillment and completion lies in surrender, in the fiat, in the "yes," in the detachment to all else; the submission of flesh and blood, mind and heart, for the wholeness of the soul. Flesh cries out, "O Love, where, why?" God cries out, "Here! O Love, know!"

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About Elizabeth Scalia

Elizabeth Scalia is a weekly columnist at First Things.

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