“The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.”

          Advent is the most Marian time of the year. Now, more than at any other time, we turn to the one who expected the coming of the Savior with the greatest longing of all. We can say with confidence that our Blessed Mother awaited His coming more earnestly than anyone else not only because She is His mother according to the flesh. Of course, the fact that She carries His sacred humanity within Her very body heightens Her awareness of His presence. But there is even more happening here.

          Young Jewish women of our Blessed Mother’s day were acutely aware of the prophecies of the coming savior. It was the highest aspiration of all those young women to be the mother of the messiah. Numerous figures akin to John the Baptist had been telling the Jewish people that he was coming soon. It was like how we encourage young people to consider a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. The first-century Jewish equivalent or “what if you are the one Christ is calling to serve Him as a priest or religious?” was, “What if you are the one God has chosen to be the mother of the Savior?

          Our Lady, then, excelling all other women in natural virtue due to being conceived without original sin – Her intellect not darkened by sin’s corrupting power, learned even more excellently than all the other young women the ancient prophecies. She would have meditated upon them and asked God for the privilege, if it be in His will, for Her to take that great place in the history of the salvation of Her people.

          There is a lot at stake in Advent. This season is not just about preparing yourself for the coming of the Christchild – His first coming – but also preparing yourself for His second coming at the end of time – “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” This second coming will be very different than His humble and hardly unnoticed appearance at Bethlehem: “People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world. … For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.”

          Amidst these high stakes, Holy Mother Church gives us the example and intercession of Her highest honor and greatest and protector: the merciful and compassionate Mother or the same One who is coming in glory amidst the clouds. Her quiet confidence and gentle expectation inspire the hearts of believers always, but in this time especially.

          This cosmic drama and the Blessed Mother’s role in it are captured beautifully by the Alma Redemptoris Mater chant – yet another reason we will be singing it all through Advent and Christmastide. Amidst the foretold tribulations, She is the open gate of heaven. She inspires us with confidence in Her Son, knowing that She is interceding for us and holding open the gate that leads to Her Son. She is the Star of the Sea. When we think of the sea, we probably think of the calm waters of the Florida gulf coast, or other picturesque seascapes. For the ancients, though, the sea was a scary place, full of tumultuous waves and perilous dangers. Without GPS or even a compass, the stars were their only hope of navigating to a safe harbor. The Blessed Mother as Star of the Sea is a powerful image of Her reflecting Her Son’s light and pointing the way amidst profound darkness.HerhH

          She succors the people who, though falling, strive to rise up. She understands our weakness but also sees the goodness of those who are fighting against temptation. She looks out on a world deprived for countless centuries of sanctifying grace, She who alone since Adam’s fall has experienced the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. And what is Her response? She sees a people who are striving to rise up, striving to overcome the shackles of sin but lack the strength that will eventually come through the saving death and Resurrection of Her Son, and Her response is to have mercy, to reach out Her hand in maternal intercession, to pull up the “sugere qui curat populo,” the people who strive to rise up.

          This Advent, strive to grow in devotion to the One who awaits with the greatest and most eager expectation the fulfillment of God’s plans, when “Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure.” Keeping Her example before you, She will teach you to wait with eagerness and confidence for Her Son.

The Rev. Royce V. Gregerson

Parish Church of Our Lady of Good Hope, Fort Wayne

1 December, A.D. MMXXIV