Today's plant is the Bluebell. Its constancy made it appropriate for a day* when the Mass readings focus strongly on God's unshakeable constancy of purpose and plan.
" 'I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you' (Jn 14:18)
In the Office of Readings, we find Isaiah strongly hinting at the New (covenant) 'I am God, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, and I will accomplish all my purpose. I have spoken and will bring it to pass.'
"The second Office reading from the 'Epistle to Diognetus' provides (an) extended reflection, speaking of God's plan as having been darkly hinted at by the prophets in figures and types, but kept secret until John the Baptist. God had always been long-suffering as well as loving towards us, but only in his giving of his Son could we possibly be made aware of the full magnitude of his love. We would have had no hope of entering the kingdom without this gift, and through it alone could we begin to realise God's patient constancy, or to grasp the amazing fact that he has not rejected us. Instead, he bears with us through his Son who takes our sins upon himself.
My bluebells will eventually be planted .....at the foot of the statue of Our Lady (The Immaculate Heart of Mary), because God chose to make his loving constancy fully manifest through her. And they are also entirely appropriate because their colour is hers. Nor will I forget the human constancy of Joseph which had its part in the human upbringing of our supremely constant Saviour, to whom highest thanksgiving is due, and who left us this promise: 'Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.' I will remember this as (with the Advent wreath candles alight at Vespers), I pray the second great Advent Maginificat antiphon: 'O Adonai, the leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in a flame of fire, and gave him the Law on Sinai: Come and deliver us with an outstretched arm.'
And for music today, Christopher Tye's setting of 'Rorate Coeli' strikes just the right chord of confidence in God."
(*entry written in a year when December 18th was the 4th Sunday of Advent)
copyright Jane Mossendew 2002
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