Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,
for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

When Adolf Hitler coldly plotted the systematic extermination of millions of Jews, did he conceive of such an evil scheme under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?  I think not.  When the terrorist mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, first conceived of his dastardly plan, did he conceive of such a crime against humanity under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?  I think not.  When any of us conceives of a destructive, vengeful or murderous thought toward another human being, I do not believe such thoughts are conceived under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

God’s Holy Spirit, God’s very breath and loving essence, if you will, present in every human heart, in every religion and in every culture and indeed hovering over all of creation is about one thing only, the preservation and sanctification of all God-given life.  The call to cooperate with God’s spirit in its saving, sanctifying and life-giving mission, is I believe, the call of our gospel reading today.  Just as Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus in God’s plan of salvation, so we too are called and chosen for a singular mission to help God complete his work of saving, healing and transforming our world.  The only way our thoughts, our choices and our actions in this life can be holy and beautiful in God’s sight, and not dark and destructive, is through surrendering our lives, our world and all of creation to the healing and transforming action of the Holy Spirit.

In a few moments we will hear this prayer prayed aloud over our gifts of bread and wine: Lord, may the power of the Holy Spirit, which sanctified Mary the mother of your Son, make holy the gifts we place upon this altar.  What a simple and beautiful prayer.  But what are we saying and what do we mean by this prayer and what are we saying and what de we mean when we offer our gifts of bread and wine to God the father?  Let’s just explore that for a moment.

When we bring our gifts of bread and wine to the table of the Lord, what really and truly are we bringing?  Are we simply bringing special bread and wine to be changed into the body and blood of Christ?  I think we are bringing a lot more.  When we offer these earthly gifts, do they not symbolically represent all that we are as individuals, all that we are as a human community and all the natural and material resources at our disposal in this world?

Imagine it this way.  Each one of us is represented by a single host contained in the large paten of hosts that will be brought to the altar.  In the placing of my single host on the altar I am offering to God and placing in Christ’s hands all that is me – the good, the bad and the ugly!  I am saying to God: All the good that you have put in me I dedicate to the service of life, to help make your world a happy and beautiful place at ease with itself.  All the potential for badness and destruction that there is in me, I also give to you to destroy so that you can make me into a new creation.

But in the single host that represents me the rest of the wider human community that I am inextricably a part of, is also represented.  Every human person is an extension of me, so when I offer and dedicate my life to God I am also offering all the peoples of the world for God to heal, unify and transform.  I am asking God to use all of us as his instruments of reconciliation, and so to banish all the conflicts and animosities that divide us.

Lastly, my single host must also represent the earth that sustains me, and all human, animal and vegetable life.  It symbolizes the fields, the forests, the rivers and the oceans and indeed all the material resources I enjoy and am called to generously share with others. 

So, what we present to God the father at the offertory of our mass is God’s entire creation.  And we call on the Holy Spirit to transform all into the loving, life-giving, risen and glorified Body of Christ.  Something to think about, as we continue to discover Emanuel, God with us, in our hearts, in our homes and in our world this Christmas.