One of the lost joys of childhood is the joy of anticipation. Remember looking forward to something truly special? Remember the excitement you felt? The almost unbearable sense of anticipation? It didn’t matter what it was because, as children, so many things excited us: a planned family trip; the first day of summer vacation; a visit by a favorite relative. Often enough, it involved simpler things: a Saturday matinee at the local movie house; a birthday party; making home-made ice cream; smelling the cake your mother was baking, watching her frost it with a spatula and hoping she’d leave a little extra in the bowl.
For me, though, and I suspect for most of you too, the most exciting time of the year, the day I looked forward to more than any other was Christmas. Our family life was so entwined with the Church, my anticipation of Christmas never really got going until the First Sunday of Advent. Until then, Christmas just seemed too far away to think about. But with Advent, it was official. Advent calendars suddenly appeared, forming a kind of countdown to Christmas Day.
The Church is actually very childlike in its anticipation of Christmas, and it does so with almost the same degree of excitement. Advent means a coming or approach, but it’s not the approach of today’s commercial holiday that we celebrate. Rather, we are asked to look forward with childlike anticipation to the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by remembering His coming into the world 2,000 years ago.
As we make our way through these last days of Advent in joyful anticipation of the coming of Our Lord, let’s take a moment to read once more St. Luke’s description of the Annunciation to Mary by the archangel Gabriel, an event that triggered the first Advent.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end."
And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible."
And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. [Lk 1:26-38].
This passage from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel really tells the story of that first Advent, with Mary as the main character. But the drama is far more than a nice story, as Mary is far more than a mere actor. For Mary is our model, and her response to the good news of the archangel Gabriel teaches us the meaning of Advent and the response God seeks.
Although surprised, Mary wasn’t frightened by Gabriel’s sudden appearance. No, it was his words that caused her initial concern. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” [Lk 1:28]. With her simple humility and her awareness of God’s greatness, Mary was puzzled by the meaning of this greeting. But Gabriel went on to explain his mission. Mary will conceive and give birth to a son, the Son of the Most High, a King who will inherit David’s throne, who will reign forever.
No doubt this was a lot for a young girl to absorb. But don’t underestimate Mary. Probably no more than 15 or 16, she had been raised in a devout Jewish family. Her parents would have taught her the Scriptures, primarily the Torah, the Psalms and Proverbs. From Scripture she would have known about God’s promises of a messiah. Moreover, there was plenty of messiah talk going around in those troubled days.
But more important than all this: Mary was “full of grace.” In other words, God had blessed her from the moment of her conception with the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit. Mary, then, knew exactly what Gabriel was telling her: that she would conceive a son immediately, and that He was the promised Messiah. Her only question? How will God bring this about since, although betrothed to Joseph, she was a virgin? Notice that Mary didn’t question God’s plan or that He had chosen her. She merely wanted to know how – a most reasonable question.
Gabriel told her that God’s own Holy Spirit would overshadow her, that her son will, therefore, be the Son of God. To emphasize God’s power, Gabriel reveals that Mary’s long-barren relative, Elizabeth, has also conceived a child.
God didn’t command Mary. He permits her to choose and awaits her answer. Not only God, but all of creation and the entire span of human history, awaits Mary’s answer. Adam and Eve, who chose sin over obedience, beg her for a Yes. So too do Abraham, Moses, and David, all the patriarchs and prophets. Their pleas echo down the centuries, and we join them in anticipation. For in that moment, God placed the salvation of the human race, past, present and future, in the hands of this simple Jewish girl. She need utter only one word to embrace the living Word of God in her womb.
Her response,
a response straight from the heart, brings a sigh of joy from all creation: “Let
it be done to me according to your word” [Lk 138].
It is a choice of total abandonment to God’s Will. We encounter its foreshadowings throughout Sacred Scripture. Consider the choice of Abraham when called by God to become father of God’s own people. The choice Moses made when asked by God to lead His people from bondage to the promised land. The response of the prophets when called to speak God’s word to a stubborn people. These set the stage for the great drama presented to us when Gabriel reveals God’s will to Mary, His servant, and she responds with complete abandonment.
It’s not unlike the choice each of us is called to make, a choice founded on the certainty of God’s promise of eternal life. It is a choice buoyed by faith and hope, a hope of expectation, the hope of Jesus’ return in power and glory. For this is the other Advent we celebrate.
Will we, like Mary, make that choice? Can we set
aside our willful natures and abandon ourselves to God’s loving will? It’s
never too late, for God continues to call us to Him all the days of our lives.
And remember, as Gabriel told Mary, “For with God nothing will be impossible" [Lk 1:37].
Of course, to understand what God wants of us, we need only turn to Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church. Thanks to the efforts of my mother and the Dominican Sisters at St. Augustine School, I had to learn the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, even though as a child, I really didn’t understand what all those mysterious words meant. Back then we weren’t told to memorize them; no, we were told to “learn them by heart.” What a beautiful expression! When I memorize something, I simply store the words in my brain for later retrieval. But to learn something “by heart” is to make it a part of me – the words, their meanings, the goodness and beauty of the message. Yes, indeed, growing up we learned so many good and wondrous things – prayers and Bible verses and poems and songs and hymns – and learned them all “by heart”, just as Mary, when confronted with the wonders surrounding her Son, "kept all these things in her heart" [Lk 2:51].
Among my favorite passages from the Letters of St. Paul – another something I learned by heart many years ago – is a rather brief instruction Paul offered the Thessalonians. I had to learn it by heart because in the seventh grade Sister Mary Andrew assigned it as a mild punishment for misbehaving before school. (I got into a bit of a skirmish with Donnie Anderson.) The good Sister also asked me to explain each verse to her, thus encouraging the involvement of the heart
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstance give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil [1 Thes 5:16-22].
As it turned out, I became quite a fan of these few verses, partly because of their brevity, making them easy to remember, but mostly because they say so much in so few words. The Church also considers these words by Paul worthy instruction for Advent and includes them as the Second Reading on Gaudete (“Rejoice!”) Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent (Year B). Paul begins by calling us to do three things:
· Rejoice always! because life itself is a gift and demands a joyful response. As Christians, then, we must rejoice always, as long as we live and breathe.
· Pray without ceasing by making every aspect of your life a prayer, everything an offering to the God who created you.
· In all circumstances give thanks. As Paul reminded the Romans, "...all things work for good for those who love God" [Rom 8:28]. Not only life, but every part of life, is a gift from God whose will leads us only to the good. All, then, is deserving of our thanks.
Did you notice the repetition – always…without ceasing…in all circumstances – central to these brief verses? Paul wants to ensure we don’t miss the message – that we learn it by heart – and realize this is God’s will for us. Just as God’s love knows no bounds, so too must our response be all-encompassing and extend through all time and space. For most of us this demands a significant change in how we live our lives, helping us respond to the call for a lifelong conversion.
How often do you and I rejoice? Always? Probably not, but God tells us everything is a cause for joy. Even the evils we encounter? Yes, because they provide opportunities for God to reveal His love and goodness, and to do so through those who suffer because of the world’s evils.
Years ago, after I had preached about this, a parishioner approached me after Mass and said, “Everything is not a cause for rejoicing. How can we rejoice about the deaths of millions of aborted unborn children?”
I think my answer took him by surprise. “Don’t get trapped in worldly time. That’s what Satan and his flunkies want us to do. Try to think as God thinks, eternally. All those aborted babies, those special innocents, are with God, immersed in His loving embrace. His love for them is beyond our comprehension and what do they do? They intercede for the world they never saw, and for the souls of those who took their lives. And that’s certainly reason to rejoice.”
To “pray without ceasing” may seem a tall order, but only if we view prayer narrowly. When we feed the hungry and welcome the stranger, when we extend Gods love to another, when we celebrate the wonders of God’s creation, when we do God’s will in our lives, we are praying.
To give thanks in all circumstances is to rejoice in God’s goodness. We spend far too much time these days grumbling about the pandemic and its effects. Were there no pandemic, we’d no doubt find other things to grumble about. How much better to instead help those most affected? How about turning to God in thankfulness for the opportunities He presents to you, opportunities to extend His love to others?
“Do not quench the Spirit,” but open your heart to His urgings. Do you realize the Holy Spirit calls you always? That’s right, He never stops calling. He calls you through the others you encounter. He calls you through a word you hear or read. He calls you in response to your prayer. He calls you in a thought He reveals to your open heart. We need only listen and remain open to His continual urgings. He will lead the way.
Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil. As Jesus taught us, "By their fruits you will know them [Mt 7:16]. Don't fall prey to the evil disguised as good, to that which the world fancies but bears only evil fruit. False prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves [Mt 7:15], are always among us. If we remain true to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, we wil always recognize them.
Rejoice, pray, give thanks, be open to the Spirit and the goodness of God…this is how our merciful Father wants us to approach the birth of His Son, with the joyful anticipation of a child.
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