Nine

“He began by spending nine months in his Mother's womb, like the rest of men, following the natural course of events.” (Saint Josemaria, “Christ is passing by”, at 18).

Maria Gravida (Pregment of a Panel Museum of Arts Budapest)

I have been thinking about the Son of God.  God is so infinitely patient.

I have been thinking about how it is that God came into the world.

Hundreds of millions of years before human being walked the earth there were organisms on the earth.  There were single celled organisms and microscopic organisms.  There were plants and then animals.  Dinosaurs existed for hundreds of millions of years.  When you compare the length of time of this to the length of time that human beings have walked on this earth – the time since God created Adam and Eve – it is unfathomable…  Adam and Eve were homo sapiens and they lived 300,000 years ago – which is not even a drop in the hundreds of millions of years that dinosaurs roamed.

During this whole time, God knew what was to come.  He saw the creation of Adam and Eve and He also saw that they would become corrupted and sin and He saw the damage they would do.

He knew this forever because God is outside of time and space and therefore sees all things and hears all things and knows all things.  God knows what I will do before I have done it – and yet – with infinite patience He WAITS for me to do the thing.  He does not interfere with me.  He does not step in and do the thing for me.

And I have been thinking about that.  Because God waited – outside time and space – for the organisms to live and the planet to form and for humans to start and develop and multiply.  He waited for all these things and then He sent His only Son into the world.  He picked the time and space.  And when He did this, He did not just dump Christ – fully formed as Adam had been.  Instead, Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin.

And this is an amazing thing.  I mean, not only is the conception of Christ astounding, but the fact that after His conception, Christ stayed inside the womb of the Blessed Virgin for nine months.

He grew from the food that she consumed.  He travelled where she travelled.  He felt His mother’s heartbeat.  He listened to the sound of her voice.  He prayed in the womb – surrounded by Angels.  God Himself stayed quietly in that dark place waiting for the moment of His birth…

“He began by spending nine months in his Mother's womb, like the rest of men, following the natural course of events. He knew that mankind needed him greatly. He was longing to come into the world to save all souls, but he took his time. He came in due course, just as every other child is born. From conception to birth, no one — except our Lady, St Joseph and St Elizabeth — realized the marvellous truth that God was coming to live among men.” (Saint Josemaria, “Christ is passing by”, at 18).

And I have been thinking in particular about the infinite patience of God to wait nine months – when it seems that my impatience means that I cannot even wait nine minutes to serve my Beloved…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.