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For nothing will be impossible for God.
There was an 18th century Irish philosopher
and politician named Edmund Burke.
He was always required reading in Ireland in my school days.
I remember reading some of his essays.
It was strikingly brilliant and beautiful stuff.
He wrote this one essay that
I always remember about philosophical inquiry.
It was called “Inquiries on the Ideas of Beauty and the Sublime.”
Just a beautiful title!
In this essay he explains the distinction between beauty and the sublime;
sublime being that what leads to awe.
Understand awe as mystery. Awe!
This essay was not without its controversies even at the time.
Many criticized it because of its simplicity,
but maybe that is why I like it.
Some even complained about its simplicity!
Yes, it is nice and simple.
He speaks about how we tend to like
that which is beautiful such as symmetry.
Anything that has not only just symmetry,
but symmetry according to our eye.
In other words, we tend to project onto something
that which we perceive as beautiful,
and there has to be symmetry involved and colors and all that.
Then he contrasts that idea with the sublime, or that which we call awe.
He says awe will draw us out of every known category
and beyond what we think.
We are struck by awe.
In other words, the beautiful that awe brings is beyond the possible,
beyond what we could imagine, beyond ourselves.
Thus, he suggested that it is then of a divine source
because it is beyond our imagination,
beyond our thinking,
beyond our ideas and
brings us to the sublime, the awe.
Since Burke’s time, lots of people have spoken about this,
philosophers and theologians,
sociologists and so forth have spoken about the distinction.
Awe is an under spoken response to life
because we know that which is beautiful.
We look at it and say,
“Oh, that is beautiful.
Oh, she is beautiful, or he is beautiful.
Oh, look at the beautiful.”
We know how beautiful you are,
but it is often a projection of what we want,
what we desire, what we like.
But awe is something we do not expect.
For example, when we even just think about the idea
that no two snowflakes are the same,
no two snowflakes are the same.
Just even thinking about that is awe,
because it is so mind blowing.
Or for less imagination, no two human beings are the same.
No two human beings look the same.
Nor do they talk the same; that is extraordinary.
Out of all the human beings,
billions of human beings created,
never has there been two that have been the same.
That that kind of makes us pause and go,
“Wow, that is amazing.”
Nature provides an abundance of it.
We look at a flower, something as simple as a fern leaf.
And every leaf on a fern leaf is a replica of the fern leaf
down to it’smallest leaf.
Every single fern leaf is a replica of itself,
all the way down to its molecular level.
Wow!
The reason I bring this up is today,
is in this reading, we hear Mary's response
to the announcement that she is going to become
the mother of the son of God.
It is beautiful.
Yes, but there is something way deeper going on here.
And her response is one of awe.
“How can this be? It is impossible.
I have not had relations with a man.”
And her response is one of awe.
Then she gives us what we ought to do in the presence of awe.
She gives us a way to do this as the exemplar disciples.
She pauses and then says,
“I am the handmade of the Lord. Let it happen as you say.”
What are we to learn from this?
There are many things in our life that can confuse us,
maybe even anger us because we do not understand
why they happen sometimes.
It can be painful as with the loss of health or a loss of a loved one.
In that moment, we are livid.
This does not make sense; I did not do anything.
How did this illness happen to my loved one?
Why did this death happen to me?
It is difficult.
Then on the other extreme is when wonderful things happen
and we just say,
“How did this woman or this man fall in love with me?
I do not deserve this.
This person is so much better than I am.
I do not know what I have done or how I have done it.”
This person could have this father or this mother.
They, they are just amazing.
We are in awe and rightly so.
What are we to do?
We need to sit before the mystery, the deeper profound mystery.
Not trying to intellectualize it.
Not trying to rationalize
or some sort of thought pattern
that will somehow encapsulate or hold this.
What then are we called to do?
Just do as Mary does, behold it,
hold it and let it happen according to God's will.
Then be present to it.
Be present to the beautiful, the mysterious, the stupefy, the painful.
In the midst of it, God's presence will be made known to us.
In this next day, it is going to be chaos for Christmas.
But can we be present to the beautiful moments that exist?
Sometimes the stupefying ones,
I know that every family has its moments, and something will happen.
Somebody will say something, and you go, really?
That is your moment to remember what I said,
to try not to encapsulate it,
not try to attack it,
not try to make something of it,
but just let it sit there and let it happen according to God's will.
Today, as we embrace the gift that God gives us
in becoming one of us, something that we cannot understand,
something that is beyond our understanding.
We do not try to understand, rather we sit before the mystery
and we just simply enjoy the fact that
he blessed humanity by becoming one of us.
And is so doing, he brought divinity into our souls.
He allowed us to participate in divine grace in some powerful way
that we cannot even encapsulate with words.
We do not try, we just simply experience it with awe.
Today, may you have a awe filled day
before the presence of the Lord in nature,
in each other, in every little conversation,
in everything that goes well and everything that goes wrong,
and everything that is beautiful and everything that seems to just not fit.
Let us be awe struck by God's presence this day.
For nothing will be impossible for God.
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