Journey to the Center of the Earth

Joy is different than just “happiness”. Joy runs deeper and reaches further. Happiness is the opposite of sadness, but you can have joy even in sadness and sorrow. The feeling of joy is visceral. You feel it in your body, at the center of your being.

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice and in a few days it will be Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a time of joy. Joy to world. We are told that once she had conceived, Mary the mother of Jesus goes “with haste” to see Elizabeth, one of her relatives. She does this because an angel has told her that although Elizabeth is old and barren, she too is going to have a baby. Mary has got to see this with her own eyes!

So she rushes into Elizabeth’s house and as soon as she says “Shalom Aleichem”, Elizabeth feels something stirring inside her. Later she will explain that the baby inside of her “jumped for joy” when it heard Mary’s voice. Elizabeth felt this joy in her womb, in the center of her being.

Recent scientific studies have concluded that all of us begin with wombs. While we ourselves are in the womb, we all have wombs. We all start out with female equipment. In the Gospel According to Luke, the womb seems to be the “equipment of faith”. It is mentioned over and over again as the Christmas story spins out. Because, at one time, we all had wombs, we all should have the potential to have some of the same feelings as Mary and Elizabeth: acceptance, openness, faith, hope and, of course, joy.

Elizabeth feels joy in her womb. In her own way, Mary does too. Mary uses her womb to receive and provide a home for “the child”. “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Elizabeth says.

I remember when my little boy was a baby. I was in charge of giving him a bath every night. He was a beautiful boy, and I remember feeling something that I had never quite felt before. I believe I was feeling a particular kind of joy. I felt it in a strange place. I wasn’t sure I should even be feeling it there, but I was. I was feeling joy in whatever was left of my womb. I felt joy right in the center of my being.

The truth is that we all possess some kind of femininity in varying amounts. I will give you an example illustrated by the same little boy. I was looking at a toy catalogue with him. I guess I was wondering what he wanted for Christmas. One page was covered with kitchen things: pots and pans, dolls and strollers, other “girly” stuff. My son looked at it long and hard, then he turned to his mother and said: “Mom, you get these girl’s toys and I will get the boy’s toys.” Of course, he wanted the girl’s toys, but somehow, he thought that he couldn’t go there. He need her to go there for him.

I was privileged, several years ago to travel to the Holy Land. We went to Bethlehem, the traditional birth place of Jesus Christ. There is a church built over the place. We went down into the earth, into a cave. The ceiling was rounded like a grotto. This cave is believed to be the birthplace of Jesus. It makes perfect sense. I had seen, up in the hills of Israel, caves used as stables. Forget about the paintings from Europe. Forget about the wooden nativity scenes. Jesus was probably born in a cave, in the womb of the earth. The Bible says that after he was crucified, he was also buried in a cave. His tomb was the womb of the earth. From there, it all begins.

I think I can see where this is meant to go: At one point, Mary of Nazareth was the only Christian on earth. At that point in time, Mary is the Church. She is carrying the Christ. She has Christ inside her. Her womb is the sanctuary, chalice, font of God’s presence. Because you have a womb, or at least, used to have one, you too can receive the child. You can have something leap for joy in you.