How to Conceive and Bring Forth Christ Again

Let us now see how to apply the title “Mother of God” to each one of us. Let us see how we can really become mothers of Christ. Jesus himself told us how we become his mother. It happens in two ways: by hearing the Word and by practicing it. Let us just think again of how Mary became a mother: by conceiving Jesus and giving him birth. There are two types of unfulfilled maternities, two ways in which a maternity can be terminated. One is by abortion, when a child is conceived but not given birth to because the fetus dies either through natural causes or the sin of man.

Up to recently this was the only known cause of an unfulfilled maternity. Today, there exists another type, which consists in giving birth to a child without having conceived it. This is the case of babies conceived in test tubes and then placed in the womb, and in the distressing and squalid case where the uterus is lent, even hired out, to develop human beings conceived elsewhere. In this case the child the woman gives birth to is not hers and has not first been conceived “in the heart before being con­ceived in the body.” Unfortunately, these two sad possibilities exist on a spiritual level too. Those who conceive Jesus without giving him birth are those who accept the Word without practicing it; those who have one spiritual abortion after the other, making proposals to convert that are then systematically forgotten and abandoned halfway; those who see the Word like someone glancing hurriedly at himself in a mirror and then forgetting what he looked like (see Jas 1:23-24). In a word, those who have faith without works. On the contrary, those who give birth to Christ without having conceived him are those who do many works, even good works, that are not done with the heart for love of God and good intentions but rather from habit, hypocrisy, the seeking of one’s own glory or interests, or simply for the satisfaction that doing something gives. In a word, those who have works but not faith.

Father Raniero Cantalamessa,O.F.M

Preacher to the Papal Household, Advent 2019