There is a famous, if somewhat fanciful, homily on
the Annunciation by the great 12th-century Cistercian Abbot and
Doctor of the Church, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). In his
homily, Bernard imagines Mary pondering how to respond to the angel, and addresses
her directly on behalf of the whole human race: Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving
Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. … This is what the whole earth waits for,
prostrate at your feet … for on your word depends comfort for the wretches,
ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all
the children of Adam, the whole of your race. Bernard goes on as if he were
giving Mary much needed advice: Believe,
give praise, and receive. … 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. … Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in
praise and thanksgiving.
Bernard’s style is fanciful, of course, coming as it
does from an era which was much more imaginative than our modern rationalistic
and technocratic time. Still it captures something very important about the
story. As Pope Benedict XVI summed it up in his 2012 book on the subject: God knocks at Mary’s door, He needs human
freedom. … His power is tied to the unenforceable ‘yes’ of a human being. [Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy
narratives, 2012, p. 37].
In other words, God stands ready to come to us. He
is ready and willing to save us from ourselves. But we have something to do
too. We have to get on board with God’s plan. We have to be willing to be
saved. Hence the close connection between Mary’s response and that of each one
of us over the course of one’s entire life.
Of course, the part played by Mary in the great
drama we call the Incarnation was historically unique, something we remember
every time we recite the Creed, when we say: For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the
Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
But what Mary did, she did on behalf of all of us.
Traditionally, we have understood this in terms of the special connection that
exists between Mary and the Church. As one of Saint Bernard’s contemporaries,
Blessed Isaac of Stella, expressed it: In
a way, every Christian is also believed to be a bride of God’s word, a mother
of Christ, his daughter and sister, at once virginal and fruitful… Christ dwelt
for nine months in the tabernacle of Mary’s womb. He dwells until the end of
the ages in the tabernacle of the Church’s faith. He will dwell forever in the
knowledge and love of each faithful soul.”
I often like to say that Advent is not a play. We’re
not pretending Jesus hasn’t been born yet and waiting to be surprised on
Christmas morning, as if Jesus were Santa Claus. Well, Christmas isn’t a play
either. Of course, Christmas commemorates something very important that
happened a long time ago, which we remember each year with great joy and
gratitude to God. But, if we just confine Christmas to a long time ago, then we
will have missed the point entirely. Christmas challenges each one of us here
and now to respond, as Mary did, to bring the world back to life again by
bringing Christ to the world and the world to Christ. As Pope Francis has
written: Mary let herself be guided by the Holy Spirit on a journey of faith
toward a destiny of service and fruitfulness. Today we look to her and ask her
to help us to proclaim the message of salvation to all and to enable new
disciples to become evangelizers in turn [EG 287].
Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent, Immaculate Conception Church, Knoxville, TN, December 21, 2014.
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