There are many layers to the “waiting” in Advent. But one of those layers of waiting is waiting with Mary as she awaits the birth of her Son who is also the Messiah and Savior (and any mother out there can empathize more fully with this experience than I can!)

But in the midst of this Advent Season, we also meditate on Mary’s role in Christ’s saving work, with two particular feast days.

First, on December 8, we celebrated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary; that Mary was conceived without original sin, to be the highest of all CREATED beings (Jesus was born, but since He is God, is an ETERNAL being, not CREATED); And we see in Mary from the moment of conception, the beginning of the unfolding of the long-awaited promise of the Savior…a promise that dates not only back to the Israelites in exile awaiting a Messiah to rescue the and bring them home, but all the way back to the beginning, in the fall of Adam and Eve when God makes a promise to Eve that there will be strife between all her offspring and the serpent. But while the serpent will strike at their heel, the head of the serpent will be crushed (see Genesis 3:15); this is what we call the “proto -Gospel” as it foreshadows that ultimately the serpent will not be victorious over Eve’s offspring. We then see this begin to unfold in Mary (which is why Mary as the “new Eve” is often depicted as standing upon and crushing a serpent).

Second, on Dec. 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe… that not only did God prepare Mary to be an intimate part of His saving work at Christmas, but she continues to be a powerful part of His work, through her apparitions to different peoples in different times, bringing many people and many hearts to turn to Christ in wondrous and miraculous ways!

And all this we remember as we celebrate this third week of Advent; today what we call “Gaudete” (that is, “Rejoice”), Sunday. That while we are still in this season of Advent, of “not yet” we see and rejoice a bit in the “already.” The mysterious wonder and mysteries, “already” beginning from the moment of conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, continuing to the announcement of Jesus’ conception in Mary (what we will hear for our Gospel reading NEXT week Sunday), and into the work she continues to be a part of throughout our history (including in the 1500s in the Americas).

Thus we say, Gaudete! Rejoice! And in this holy season of preparation, of Advent, may we look to God’s work in and through Mary and together with Mary, “ponder all these things in our hearts” (see Luke 2:19), so to prepare ourselves to enter more fully into the Mystery of Christmas.

Peace,
-Fr. Kevin

PS: a reminder that we will celebrate another Communal Reconciliation, Sat. Dec. 19, 10:30 am in Hampton