The whole world awaits Mary’s reply
Fourth Sunday of Advent (B)
We are on the very cusp of Christmas. Indeed, in a few hours hence parishes will begin to celebrate the birth of Christ at the Vigil Masses.
So, on the very cusp of Christmas we have read the account of the Annunciation. It is a story we have heard many times and it is very familiar to us.
St Bernard of Clairvaux, the great Cistercian monk of the thirteenth century, had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and composed many homilies in her honour. One homily which is found in the Office of Readings for the 20 December offers a wonderful image of the whole world, with bated breath if you like, awaiting Mary’s response to the Angel.
Allow me to quote this beautiful reflection at some length:
You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.
Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death.
This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God.
Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident.
This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous.
Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator.
See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves.
Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.
This is a beautiful meditation on the moment of the Annunciation and the significance of the response by the virgin Mary. It is true that everything depended on the response that she would make to the Angel. Our salvation, the salvation of the world, would depend upon it.
Mary said ‘yes’ and conceived the child Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, and so God’s great work of redemption could commence.
Later when Mary visited Elizabeth we see that Elizabeth herself recognised the importance of Mary’s response. She declared to Mary, “Blessed is she who believed that the promise of the Lord made to her would be fulfilled”.
Mary believed. Mary entrusted herself to God’s plan. Mary surrendered completely to the will of God for her.
This offers us an insight also into our own lives. When we say yes to God, when we come to that place in our faith that we turn over our lives to the plan and purpose of God, we allow Christ to be born in us.
We have opened the door to him. We have invited him into our hearts and lives.
Just like the virgin Mary, God offers and never demands. He awaits our response, as he awaited the response of the virgin Mary.
Christ born of Mary was for the salvation of the whole world, so too allowing Christ to be born in our hearts also enables Christ to be conveyed through us to the world. Simply put, Christ needs us in order to be present in the midst of the world.
To St Teresa of Avila is attributed these words which remind us of how much God relies upon our willingness to be instruments of his work in the world:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Like the virgin Mary, our yes to God makes him present in the world so that his saving work can be achieved.
Archbishop Julian Porteous
Sunday, 24 December 2023