What Wondrous Love Is This

St. Lucy

Yesterday, I got some infection in my eye, causing me to be uber-sensitive to light. I spent most of the night and early morning trying to right balance of soft light that wouldn’t hurt while still enough to get things done. I’ve always valued by vision above other senses because I’m a writer and a visual learner. So it was apropos that I learned today is the Feast of Saint Lucy, the patron of the blind.

The American Girl doll Kirsten.
Her family celebrates St. Lucia Day.

The only thing I knew about Saint Lucia Day was what I learned in my American Girl books when I was little. Kirsten's nineteenth-century family were Swedish in origin, and Saint Lucia Day is represented as a custom from the old country. A young girl represents Lucy wearing a white robe, red sash, and a wreath of candles on her head. She serves pastries or St. Lucia buns (made from saffron) to the family.

Lucy (which means “light”) was a third-century Christian in Sicily who refused to marry a pagan. She gave away her dowry to the poor. Her fiance turned her in to be killed. There are two versions of how she lost her eyes. One is that the guards pulled out her eyes with forks; another is that she cut out her own eyes because they were what her fiance admired about her. Both stories say God restored her sight. She was eventually killed, making her one of the most famous virgin-martyrs.

St. Lucy is often depicted with her eyes on a dish.

Her story spread quickly, and by the fifth century she was well-known throughout Christendom. She is one of seven women commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass, and she celebrated highly in the Lutheran Church as well (hence Saint Lucia Day celebrations in Scandinavian countries). Her feast day falls on one of the darkest days of the year. I think that is because it is when it is darkest that we crave light the most.That's what makes the candles of Advent so attractive: the hope that pushes back against the looming, dark night.

Timey-Wimey Grace

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception of Mary is the patron of the United States. It is a mystery of the faith that continues to enrapture and confuse. The most confusing thing about the Immaculate Conception is not that God preserved Mary from Original Sin, but how Mary received sanctifying grace before Jesus (or even she) was born. It’s because we like our narratives in linear time. A causes B causes C. Space has three dimensions and time has one. But time isn’t always linear. Ask any Doctor Who fan, and they can tell you that time is really a ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey...stuff. I think the Immaculate Conception is a great example of how God is outside our understanding of time. Sometimes C can be the cause of A, which comes after B.

Time travel and other universes are common in sci-fi. There are usually two ways time travel affects a story: the kind where going back in time disrupts the narrative and creates an alternate reality and the kind where going back in time fulfills the narrative and establishes the known reality. In the latter, the characters are/were destined to go back and do something. Although choice and freewill exist, they perform an action that has seemingly already been done.

Like all people, Mary required the grace of Christ to save her from Original Sin. But her case is unique in that she was saved before she contracted Original Sin and before Christ entered the world. Mary’s Immaculate Conception removed Original Sin at the moment of her conception. It was the same grace any other person receives at baptism. And years later, she said “Yes” to God of her own free will and bore Christ. Her fiat and her Immaculate Conception are interwoven; if anything, her fiat results in the Immaculate Conception.

What makes Mary so remarkable is how unremarkable she is. As someone who was baptized as an infant, I was freed from Original Sin early on. Yet I committed sins of my own. I stubble, I pick myself up, and I try to follow God most of the time. So what if Mary was preserved from Original Sin? That alone doesn’t make her any different than a newly baptized infant. What makes her so remarkable is that she faithfully followed God and humbly said “Yes” to the greatest request a human could receive. She wasn’t predestined and forced to be sinless; she lived a life that merited it.

A few months ago, I read Flatland, a nineteenth century novella that is narrated by a man who lives in a world with just two dimensions. He travels to a world with only one dimension and struggles to explain the concept of width. He then travels to world of three dimensions and struggles to understand the concept of depth. We understand time at its lowest dimension. Time can have width and depth, but from where we stand, we can’t see it. But God works through all universes and dimensions. My God is the Ruler of the Multiverse and the Lord of Time (sorry, Doctor). What seems to contradict our scientific understanding may just be simple mechanics of a higher dimension.

Note: It really irritates me to hear the term Immaculate Conception in relation to the conception of Jesus. So, an overview of the basics.

Jesus was conceived in the Virgin Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. This is the Virgin Birth. He bore no Original Sin, but that’s because He’s God, not because of an act at conception.
Mary was conceived in the natural manner, by her parents Joachim and Anne.
At the moment of conception, when the new life is infused with a soul, Mary simultaneously received sanctifying grace. This means she carried no Original Sin.

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 54)

1. As you can see, I got quite a bit of blogging done this week. That will probably dip again next week during finals, but I’m glad to get back to it.

2. I finished NaNoWriMo with a day to spare! I’m looking forward to doing lots of edits over break.

3. I haven’t had more than three hours of sleep at a time in over a week. My brain somehow decided 11 p.m.-4 a.m. is “freak out about the future and reevaluate all life decisions” time, no matter how tired I actually am. I’ll be so, so glad when this semester is over.

4. Have you heard about the Boy Meets World Next Gen? Disney is going to produce Girl Meets World, about Cory and Topanga’s daughter. I’m optimistic about it since Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel are going to be on it.

5. I’m also optimistic about Star Trek: Into Darkness, because Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Chris Pine. I don’t even mind if the villain is Khan. Again. The teaser trailer was released yesterday. But instead, I’ll share this video that was made about the 2009 Star Trek. I think it’s accurate for this one as well.