“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
While May has become the month dedicated to the Mother of God with charming May crowning’s and rosary processions, personally, I’ve always looked to the Advent Season as the preeminent time for Christians to both remember and celebrate Mary’s unique role in Salvation History.
Not only do we have two significant Marian feasts in the month of December, Mary’s Immaculate Conception and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, dear to the faithful in the Americas, but we have the Advent readings from the Gospel of Luke that anchor Mary’s unique place in the communion of saints.
Why do we Christians and more specifically Catholics and Orthodox Christians venerate Mary so highly? Isn’t such veneration near idolatry that detracts from the singular focus that we Christians should have on the son she bore?
From the earliest days of the Christian community as witnessed by both Sacred Scripture and Tradition, Mary played an altogether unique role in the unfolding of the Father’s great plan to reconcile the human race. Sacred Tradition tells us that from the very first moment of her conception, the Father was preparing this young Jewish maiden to play an instrumental role in His definitive breaking into human history. Yet, God’s will for us through Mary was not forced upon her. The mystery of the Annunciation reminds us that it was Mary’s ‘yes’ to the Father’s invitation to be the mother of his Son, that salvation dawned for all humanity.
Our Gospel today recounts the cherished moment when Mary with child goes to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, unexpectedly pregnant in her advanced age with her son, John. John, the last and greatest of all the prophets, ‘leapt for joy’ in his mother’s womb as Mary approached, keenly aware that salvation was dawning!
My friends, as the great Feast of the Incarnation nears, may our hearts leap for joy as we welcome the God who makes his home with us, Emmanuel, as God breaks into our lives with his unconditional love and mercy. He who is our way, our truth and our life. He who is the Son of Mary.