In the Virgin Mary, we see the image of the perfect disciple. Throughout her earthly life, she cooperated completely with God's grace, never falling into sin of any kind. Through the Immaculate Conception, God kept Mary free of all stain of Original Sin. Throughout her whole life she refrained from any sort of personal sin as well, always keeping her will perfectly aligned with God's Will.
When the Archangel Gabriel came to her, Mary was living in humble circumstances, in a tiny village in a region suffering under the cruel yoke of the Roman Empire. But she believed God's words spoken to her by the angel that she would become the Mother of God and that her son would be the long-awaited Messiah.
She also accepted the risks and cost of discipleship. When she became pregnant with Jesus, the Virgin Mary was only engaged to Joseph but was not yet married to him. She and St. Joseph had agreed to enter into a celibate, spiritual marriage, which was a recognized custom that some couples chose in the culture of the time. Joseph's initial reaction to finding Mary pregnant was no doubt one of great disappointment. He decided to cut ties with her quietly, rather than to expose her to the law, which prescribed death by stoning as the punishment for fornication.
Of course, the Virgin Mary was completely pure, but if her community had assumed that she had fallen into sin, she would have faced execution by having rocks thrown at her by her own neighbors. Jesus was not even born yet, but Mary was already facing the ultimate cost of discipleship - death for the sake of the faith. But Mary trusted God. She believed that His words would be fulfilled. At the prompting of the angel, St. Joseph accepted her as his wife and the danger passed. The divine plan continued to unfold.
Given her sinlessness, her complete openness to God's love, her full conformity to God's Will, her perfect faith, her unyielding trust - given all of these beautiful attributes, we can see that the Virgin Mary is the embodiment of God's vision for humanity. She is what unfallen humanity would have been like. She is what we are to be like when we have been perfected by God's grace.
We honor the Virgin Mary because of her complete acceptance of God's plan for her and because of how greatly God's glory is reflected in her and in the works God accomplished through her. Everything about Mary is a testament to God's greatness. All of the teachings we profess about her as Catholics reinforce core teachings about Christ. Mary is always pointing toward Christ. Mary is never about herself, but about Christ and Christ alone. She seeks one thing, just one. To bring us into an ever-deeper relationship with her Divine Son.
Mary always brings us Jesus, as she did when she visited Elizabeth. Great was the joy of Elizabeth, who recognized that the Mother of God had come to her, bearing in her womb the Lord. Her joyous exclamation is a part of the daily prayer of the Church in the Hail Mary "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42). Elizabeth welcomed the Virgin Mary into her home and God Incarnate entered in with her. The presence of Jesus already as child in the womb was so powerfully life-giving that his cousin, John the Baptist, the baby in Elizabeth's womb, recognized him and leapt for joy. According to a pious tradition in the Church, in that that moment, John himself was cleansed of Original Sin by the grace of Christ.
We too should reach out to Mary and welcome her into our lives, into our homes, into our hearts, day after day, every day. If we invite her in, she will come to us in haste, just as she hurried to see Elizabeth. As she does, she will always bring Jesus to us. We too will experience the powerfully, beautifully life-giving grace of Christ. Mary has one goal and one goal only, to help us to experience the profound love of Jesus.
But how, we might ask, can we welcome the Virgin Mary into our lives? Let us start by asking her to be our Mother and our Queen. Let us consecrate to her our homes, our families, and every aspect of our lives. Let us honor her by prominently displaying images of her in our homes.
Let us also pray to her daily. Two prayers in particular we should say every day. One is the Angelus, which is prayed three times a day, at 6:00am, noon, and 6:00pm. (If 6:00am is not practical, we can pray it right after we wake up in the morning.) The other prayer is the Rosary, which has four sets of Mysteries: the Joyful, the Luminous, the Sorrowful, and the Glorious. We should pray at least one set of the Rosary every day as a core part of our prayer life.
Let us also honor the Virgin Mary at Christmas, the ultimate Marian holy day, when Our Lady brought Jesus into the world for all of humanity. In the hustle and bustle of the season, the Virgin Mary reminds us without ceasing that Jesus truly is, as the saying goes, the reason for the season. She wants us to experience her Divine Son's infinite, life-giving love this Christmas and always. Let us say yes to Christ with all our being, as our Blessed Mother did.
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The readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Cycle C are:
Mi 5:1-4a
Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19.
Heb 10:5-10
Lk 1:39-45
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Public Advent Wreath Budapest, Hungary (c) 2019 by Zoltan Abraham.