4th Sunday of Advent (Fr. Simham)

Mary is the model of Advent

If you ask me who is the best model for our Advent season. I’ll say it is Blessed Virgin Mary. That is, if we want to understand the true meaning of ‘the coming of the Lord’ and its implication for us personally, we must look at the person through whom the coming of the Lord was uniquely brought about: the Virgin Mary.

Let me explain. Mary like any other person in Israel was waiting with heartfelt expectation for the Saviour’s coming. And from the words and acts recounted in the Gospel, we can see how Mary truly lived steeped in the prophets’ words; she entirely expected the Lord’s coming. But, she could not, however, have imagined the actual way how this coming was going to be. How God was actually going to come and how he was actually going to save the world.

Pious woman that she was, Mary must have read all the prophecies of Isaiah and other prophets about the coming of the messiah. And she must have formed an imagery or imagination of her own. Perhaps she might have imagined and expected a coming in glory like her contemporaries. The moment when the Archangel Gabriel entered her house and told her that the Lord, the Saviour, wanted to take flesh in her, wanted to come into this world through her, She was shocked. It was an utter surprise to her. Because that was not what she or anyone of her time were expecting. What good can come from Nazareth? What good can come me a poor virgin?

So, we can imagine her apprehension. But, when the angle said, The Lord is going to come into this world through you. And he is going to save the world through you. Can you offer him your flesh? Can you offer him your time? Can you offer him your life? Mary, with a tremendous act of faith and obedience, said “yes”: “I am the servant of the Lord.” Let him use me as best as he can for his greater glory and for the salvation of the world. And so it was that she became the “dwelling place” of the Lord, a true “ark of the covenant” before whom John like David leapt with joy, and a “door” through which the Lord entered upon the earth.

Now, when we think of the coming of the Lord, we often refer it to this unique coming through Mary and the coming at the end of time. And we forget about his other coming. That is his coming everyday into the world. Into the ordinary life and circumstances of the world. How he is going to come? or how he wants to come? As our Pope Benedict XVI says: ‘In a certain sense the Lord always wants to come through us. And he knocks at the door of our hearts as he knocked at the door of the heart of Mary saying: Are you willing to give me your flesh, your time, your life?’

The Lord who also wants to enter our epoch, he wants to enter human life through us. He also seeks a living dwelling place in our personal lives. This is the most effective coming of the Lord into our personal lives. Often we focus on the first and the last coming, that we forget the coming of the Lord today into our lives, into our work place and making a difference. This is the lesson the Lord taught Mary and she gracefully accepted it. That He wanted to come into the world and make a difference to the world through her. And this is the lesson he is teaching us. Let us learn this, in the season of Advent: The Lord can also come among us and through us. You and me can be Mary in our work place, in our homes, in our community through whom God can make his presence felt.

Sanctification of the world is God’s project, but this sanctification does not start from somewhere in the air, No! it started from an individual like Mary, who said unconditional ‘yes’ to the Lord’s will. So also if our hearts are open like Mary’s to God’s plan and will, then the Lord can come into the world and make a difference to the world through us.

Another thing we need to be aware of is this, saying ‘yes!’ is not a one-day affair. It is an everyday affair and a life-long affair. I said ‘yes’ to the Lord when I was ordained a priest. And you said ‘yes!’ to your spouse when you got married. And you know that it is not a one-day or one year commitment or contract. It is a life long commitment. So also for Mary, saying yes’ to the Lord does not end with annunciation. It went on up to the foot of the cross and further more. It is a constant yes to the Lord in everyday affairs of life. That is true advent.

May Mary Most Holy, the perfect model for advent, guide us to make this time of Advent and of the whole new liturgical year a path of genuine sanctification, a path of saying yes to the praise and glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Fr. Showreelu Simham