Mary, A Great Advent Model
Today, December 8th, is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This is not one of the planned Advent Post, where Advent is used as an acronym. But I could not let this day go by without presenting Mary to you as an excellent model for celebrating this beautiful season of Advent.
What do we mean when the Catholic Church says that Mary was immaculately conceived? It means that Mary was conceived without original sin. It means that the mother of God whom the angel greeted as “Hail, full of grace”, is sinless. Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have an issue with this teaching. Many Catholics do as well. To try to put this in perspective, many of us like fruits. When we encounter a fruit that really delights us with its taste, it’s sweetness etc., guaranteed that this came from a good tree. Here in the Caribbean we often say that a bad tree cannot be good fruit.
When you read through the writings of the prophet Isaiah and all of his prophecies, one of the things that becomes very obvious is that God has been planning the incarnation of his Son for a very long time. God’s desire to reconcile mankind to himself did not begin 2000 years ago with the birth of Jesus. This started very early in the Old Testament. All that God does is done exceedingly well. God never makes mistakes. He never blunders. God is God and he always will be! Many of us struggle with trying to understand and rationalize God. We tried to make God into our own image and likeness – how we perceive him to be rather than how HE actually is.
There is a story of St. Augustine who was writing a thesis on the Trinity. He spent a very long time writing this, but still had not completed it. There was still much he did not understand. One day he was walking along a beach as the story says, when he saw a little boy doing something that seemed to be a bit strange. The little boy had dug a hole about a foot deep and a foot wide. He had a couple seashells in his hands and he would run to the ocean, dip the shells in the water and then run back to the hole and empty the contents of the shells. St. Augustine looked on in amazement at the little boy for a few minutes, and when the suspense was too great, he went to the little boy and asked him what he was doing. The little boy responded by saying that he was trying to empty the contents of the vast ocean into the hole that he dug. With a smirk on his face, St. Augustine told the little boy that the ocean cannot fit in that little hole. To the surprise of St. Augustine, the little boy replied, ‘neither can the knowledge of God fit into your mind.’
Very often we make that very same mistake, trying to fit the knowledge of God into our finite minds. So we are trying to put something that is extremely infinite into things or vessels that are extremely finite. That will not work. If we open our minds and our hearts to God and grasp who HE really is, then the Catholic Church’s doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary will not be that difficult to accept.
As we continue through this wonderful season of Advent, the season of great Hope, I want to present to you Mary the mother of God as an excellent example and role model for this time in the Church’s calendar. When you look at the acronym that we have created from Advent, it does not take a lot to realize that Mary fits perfectly into every one of them.
A – Attend mass regularly. Even though in Mary’s time, there was no Eucharist per se, Mary being the Jewish girl that she was, actively participated in all of the Jewish traditions and worship. We also know that the Eucharist means Thanksgiving. Mary gave thanks and this is recorded in Holy scripture when she proclaims, “my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!“
D – Devotion to prayer. When we read through the Gospels we see that Mary was constantly pondering things in her heart. For example, when Jesus was presented in the temple, Mary pondered on what was said about Jesus and about herself. Also, when Jesus went missing and was eventually found in the temple, Mary pondered on his response in her heart. That is prayer.
V – Vocation. More than anyone else Mary knew her vocation. It was simply to do the will of God. In human history when it mattered the most Mary said, “Let what you have said be done to me according to your will.“ So she understood vocation very well and she took her vocation very seriously. Proof of this again is that Mary knew what would become of any woman who was found to be pregnant outside of marriage. They were stoned to death. Yet in spite of this, she still said yes, yes to do God’s well, yes to the vocation to become the mother of God.
E – Encounter Christ in others. Mary was so filled with the Holy Spirit that when she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb – who was John the Baptist – leaped for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice. Also after being told that she, Mary was chosen to be the mother of the Saviour of all of mankind, Mary went out not to exalt herself, but rather to serve her cousin Elizabeth. That is encountering Christ in others. There is also the wedding feast at Cana where it was Mary who recognized that there was a problem, and she took that problem to Jesus her son.
N – Now! Mary acted now. When the angel came to her and announced God‘s plan of salvation, Mary did not say to the angel can you hold out a bit until at least Joseph and myself get together. She did not. She asked only one question and that was, “How can this be since I am a virgin?’ Thereafter Mary’s response was now. Let what you have said be done to me.
T – Turn Away from sin. This is precisely what we celebrate in Mary today December 8th. She was conceived without sin. By God’s grace, she was sinless.
So as we continue through this wonderful season of Advent amidst all that is happening around us and with this pandemic, I want to strongly recommend to you that you go to Mary. That you make Mother Mary your model and your mother. I want to suggest that you start a devotion to Mary and ask her to pray for you and to draw you closer to Jesus her Son. Do not be surprised when you start doing this, that you come to encounter Jesus Christ in a new and in a powerful way in your life because that is what Mary does.
Happy feast day everyone.
