I am reading through Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, Vol. I, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis’ commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. You can see all of my posts on this subject here.

Matthew 1:22 tells us that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit that prophecy might be fulfilled; and Erasmo speaks of what prophecy is and what it says.

But first, I need to talk about mind maps. I’ve been using mind mapping software for some years as a fancy kind of graphical outliner; it’s especially useful for capturing notes from group discussions. However, I’ve recently discovered that there’s another side to mind maps, especially if you draw them by hand: it’s a way of getting your creative, pattern-matching, relation-making backbrain to come out and play with your analytical, verbal fore-brain. As a working programmer I’ve long since learned to rely on my back-brain to solve problems, but I’ve usually had to rely on walking, driving, or taking a shower to get the solutions to come to mind. Making mind maps by hand can do the same trick, apparently, and in a more focussed way, and so I’m making an effort to learn how to do it.

Most mornings, consequently, after reading and pondering what Erasmo has to say, I’ve tried putting it together in a mind map. Here’s the one I came up with this morning.

This isn’t really intended to speak to anyone but me, of course; and in this case I’m using the mind map as more of an input device, to help me remember what I’ve learned, than as an output device. But it captures the following points:

• In the Gospel, God’s Wisdom is always the chief actor and mover of events.
• However, God’s Wisdom generally works through the prophets, those who “speak before”, that is those who prepare.
• The purpose of the Old Testament prophecies was always to prepare for the coming of God, and hence was intended to lead to the creation of a Tabernacle, an appropriate dwelling for God.
• But sometimes you build the altar one place so that the lightning can strike somewhere else. The Tabernacle of the Temple was the best that man could build; but all of history leads up to the Annunciation, and the conception of Christ in Mary’s womb.
• And so Christ’s conception is the fulfillment of all of the prophecies; God now truly dwells among us.

The point that struck me most, reading Erasmo’s lectio, is the first one: in the Gospel, God’s Wisdom is always the chief actor. I’ve tended to focus on the people in the story; but in the Gospel, of course, the Author is also an Actor; the Father and Holy Spirit, though not usually manifesting explicitly, are always present.