OUR LADY OF THE GREAT ADVENT.
December 20, 2020
Fourth Sunday of Advent - B.
A Latin proverb says, “No matter her past, when a
chambermaid marries a lord, she becomes a lady.” And a Nigerian proverb adds,
“A child does not die because the mother's breasts are dry.”
Mary is the dawning of the fullness of time. She is our Lady
of Advent. She is the most beautiful and prominent personage of the Advent, and
one could say the main character of this season. Mary is the one who, through
her humble “Fiat”, makes our human nature cooperate into God’s plan. She is the
representative of all who awaits the coming of their Lord and Savior.
We cannot speak of the Advent of Jesus without mention Mary.
In this 4th and last Sunday of our Advent pilgrimage, the word of God, most
especially the Gospel, sets a particular emphasis on the ‘Woman of the Advent’,
the expectant woman, the one God chooses to be his Mother. About Mary and the
great Advent of the Savior, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, speaking of
the prayer of Mary, says, “Mary's prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of
the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a very unique way with
the Father's plan of loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ's
conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body.88 In the
faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had
awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made "full of
grace" responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the
handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word."
"Fiat": this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God's because he is
wholly ours.” (CCC. 2617). Mary contributed in a very significant and singular
way in the coming of a new era, the coming of the Lord our King and Savior.
The first reading, speaking of the Davidic kingship says
that it will be a kingdom that will endure forever before the Lord. This was a
promise the Lord God made to David through the prophet Nathan. To his chosen
David, God says, “I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a
son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your
throne shall stand firm forever.”
The prophecy made to David started to be fulfilled with
Solomon but it will see its full completion in the childbearing of Mary, the
woman betrothed to Joseph from the house of David. Here we have the great
revelation of the Annunciation to Mary. The Angel Gabriel carried the message
of the Lord’s incarnation to this humble Lady and by her obedience to God’s
will, she was made the Mother of the Savior.
Mary, as we said ahead, has a singular role in the mystery
of incarnation and salvation. She was privileged to be chosen by God among all
women. Though she had nothing making her different from others, God made her
special by his call and his project on her and on humankind. The mystery of
Annunciation and Incarnation reveals to us how God works with the poor and wretched
humanity. Mary professed it herself: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord…”
She was just an instrument at the disposal of God. Therefore, her life finds
its fulfillment only in doing God’s will, her act of obedience: “May it be done
to me according to your word.” In Mary and through her, we learn that human
life reaches its nirvana only when man learns to obey without question and give
primacy to God.
We live in a world and in societies where everyone fights
for his own projects and will. We can do all the possibilities for our personal
plans, even if that will cost stepping over others. we are filled with
narcissism and chronic egocentrism or selfishness at the point that we want all
things to rotate around us. By so doing, we do no open a possibility to
anything extra to our plans. Mary, as we speak of her, could have said to the
Angel, ‘Look, I do have my own projects. My plan at the moment is to get
married to Joseph to whom I am betrothed and make our family more humanly and
realistically.’ And so, all of these things perhaps would not have happened as
we know them today. But instead, with disinterest and perfect detachment from
the poison of selfishness, she opened her heart and life to God: “Fiat,
voluntas tua! – May it be done to me according to your word.” Therefore, she
became the Lady of the great event of the Incarnation of God, our Lady of the
Advent, expecting with you and me and with all mankind the coming of the
Savior.
St. Paul, in the second reading, can speak of this
incarnation as the mystery of all mysteries, the thing long kept secret and now
revealed to us. All that the prophets foresaw and announced are now made
manifest. And Mary is made the primary beneficiary of that revealed secret. The
secret of God found a hiding place in her sacred virgin womb. By her, God took
his manhood and will soon be revealed to the whole of humanity. While traveling
with Mary, let us prepare with great joy the coming of God into our world.
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