I have always been fascinated by vessels. Containers that enclose…something. Not vases or open things, but vessels. In the fifties, there was a pop song that stayed on the charts forever—what was behind the “Green Door”? If the door were open, there would be no song, no mystery, no magic.

Small boxes, wooden, maybe, like the one on the table next to me now that contains a rosary. Beautiful boxes, painted china, that rest on dressers and contain a lady’s wedding ring. Faberge eggs or “Brown paper packages tied up with string” that may contain—who knows what treasure? And there are few things more thrilling to a child’s eyes than a Christmas tree with piles of beautiful presents underneath, wrapped in colorful paper and tied with beautiful ribbons and bows. We have email nowadays and are deprived of looked-for letters from those we love, arriving in sealed envelopes, perhaps marked “swak.” Letters are a real loss, I believe. And books. Opened, they reveal vast universes of treasure.

Vessels contain treasures, surprises, things that change our lives. They are all pregnancies. Vessels are bearers of joy, messengers. A vessel conscious of itself is a woman, who wakes every day knowing that her life is now not her own, but someone else’s, someone who is yet to come, someone who is new, a blessing from God who will change her forever, making her worthwhile, fruitful and purposeful.

And how must the vessel named Mary have felt? She tries to tell in the beautiful Magnificat.

Our churches contain her replica in the form of the tabernacle, containing our Lord, waiting to be received by us as the supreme joy and treasure that He is. The tabernacle, the new Ark of the Covenant, containing the Word of God. The vessel is the promise. It contains the promise fulfilled.

All of us are vessels, bearing talents, love, deeds, children, gifts to give to each other in the Name of the Holy Sire of all vessels and all that they contain. Each of us then is a de-sire, seeking its own fulfillment, the unique one for which we were made, and living the adventure of discovery, like children who gaze with shining eyes at the presents under the Christmas tree, full of mystery, wonder and magic.