Behold, the Handmaiden of the Lord
For Trustfulness.
O MOST loving Father, who willest us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all our care on thee, who carest for us; Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which thou hast manifested unto us in thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tomorrow we will fully enter into the season of Advent and once more approach a season of waiting. For many this year, I think that this Advent season comes as a sort of relief. Coronatide found a drastic change to all our rhythms, including those of our holidays, and much of 2021 has felt like trying to make-up for the change. We’ve traveled, celebrated, mourned, and lived life fully. But, Advent reminds us once more that our life is lived in the rhythm of the Church Calendar. It tells us, it’s time to slow down. It’s time to take a deep breath. It’s time once more to prepare our hearts. In the midst of the world’s narrative regarding the holiday season and all its guilt-ridden trappings on our time, Advent calls us to a higher purpose that necessitates we slow down, take a deep breath, examine, and once more make room for Christ to enter our lives afresh. This is the work that begins tomorrow, and lies ahead of us for four weeks. Much like Lent, this season of Advent is a grace and mercy to us, especially within the contemporary Christian Church, where we are more likely to celebrate the Resurrection without the cross, and ponder the glory of the babe in the manger scene without the Holy Family’s journey to Bethlehem.
Yet while we slow down and examine, it is always good to bear in our mind and life of prayer, examples of those saints who exemplify the meditations of the season. I see no more fitting persons to reflect on than those who we already meditate upon in this season, the Holy Family. Let us begin with Mary, the Mother of God.
The Virgin Birth is the first story we encounter in the two Synoptic Gospels—Matthew and Luke—and is essential to the Christian faith because it is the means by which salvation for humanity is ultimately achieved. Jesus’ incarnation through the sacred mystery of being born through the Virgin Mary sets forth the first instance that the life of Christ is markedly different and sacred than the lives of all the other saints who have come before, and all those who will come after. This unique event, much like his death and resurrection, sets Jesus apart from all others. The Virgin Birth is not important because of our interpretation and understanding, but rather is important because it is an objective fact. As Gregory Palmas reflects, Christ’s incarnation in the Virgin Birth accomplishes “that the one who is infinite may be surely but within limits encompassed by created nature.” Thus, it is the first sign and wonder by which resurrection and the life everlasting are revealed, as referenced in Romans 1:4, and Isaiah 7:14.
It is Christ in the Spirit to the glory of God who accomplishes the redemption of the world, yet in this season of Advent, it is important that we remember this work begins not in grandiosity, but rather humbly in the womb of his mother Mary. Before we read and experience through the Church Calendar the life, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, we first hear the words of his faithful mother, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Thus, the salvific work of Christ for mankind begins through her small, ordinary acts of faithfulness.
We have been practicing this throughout the season of Trinity. In a time where we are neither perpetually feasting or fasting, we are rather living the small, ordinary acts of faithfulness that root us in sacred time. As we discussed mid-Trinity, to us the individual choices on a daily basis may seem small, but these small choices over time establish our Rule, for better or for worse. When our lives are ordered according to sacred time as opposed to the world’s time, we find seasons like Advent easier and even refreshing. Not easy in the sense that it is without difficulty: if the things we choose to fast are easy for us, we need to re-examine our choices. However, Advent becomes easier and refreshing when we live in sacred time because we’ve done the work to prepare our hearts in Trinity for fasting in Advent, and we understand the greater good and purpose that the act of saying “no” now does for us, in allowing us to say “yes” more fully to the things of God.
Our Blessed Mother Mary understood this action. Unlike Zacharias who questions the angel Gabriel when he is told his barren wife Elizabeth will bear a son (Luke 1:18), Mary’s question does not deny the truth of Gabriel’s statement, but rather seeks to understand the means by which it will be accomplished, as she was a virgin and not yet Joseph’s wife. Zacharias, a priest of the division of Abijah, is praying in the temple when Gabriel appears to him remarking, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13). Gabriel goes on to discuss John the Baptist’s role as a forerunner to Christ who will prepare the way for the Messiah. Despite being told this information from the beginning in the house of prayer, Zacharias asks for a sign and explains to Gabriel that both he and Elizabeth are past child-bearing years. For this reason, Gabriel makes Zacharias a mute until John the Baptist is born.
Whereas Zacharias’ question comes from a place of doubt, Mary’s question comes from a place of humility. Zacharias asks, “How can this happen?” Mary asks, “How will this happen?” She does not doubt Gabriel’s prophetic word, but instead listens, seeks to understand, and in faithfulness accepts the Word of the Lord. No doubt Mary had dozens of questions swirling about: what would become of her as a woman pregnant before her marriage? How would she explain this to Joseph? Would he even believe her? Who would take care of her and the child? How would they be provided for? Would society accept her son if they knew he wasn’t Joseph’s flesh and blood? These questions would indeed be valid, yet Mary did not let the anxieties of the future preclude her answer, and in an act of ultimate faithfulness, gave her assent to the will of God. We see these acts of faithfulness continued throughout the narrative of her life, from her journey to Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-5), her presentation of Christ at the temple (Luke 2:22-38), her travels to Jerusalem for Passover each year (Luke 2:41), her presence at Christ’s feet at the foot of the cross (John 19:26), and in her last recorded words, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5).
In Mary, we see a pattern of both small and great acts of faithfulness: as a forerunner to her son, Christ the Messiah, she helps to prepare the way for his salvific work and inauguration of the Kingdom of God. In a small way, her choices foreshadow the ultimate act of faithfulness in Christ’s death on the cross. This icon of faithfulness is one we are called to emulate in our daily lives. No, we will not be called to bear the Son of God, and we may not even be called to lofty or high purposes this Advent. Yet this does not lessen the importance of our daily faithfulness, for it is the means by which we will be able to say, “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord” when God calls us to higher, more difficult tasks. Our work in the Trinity Season has led us to this moment as we enter into the season of Advent. Our small acts of faithfulness prepare us to say “no” to things in Advent, that we may once again say “yes” to that which God calls us to do.
As we enter together into this season of preparation, let us call to mind the image of our Blessed Mother. A daughter of Adam and Eve, human like us, and yet her faithful assent offered salvation to all. As we fast, let us renew once more our devotion to our Lord in every way we can: with our bodies as we fast and abstain from the good things we enjoy, with our earthly goods and money as we faithfully tithe back that which God gives us, with our minds as we set them on things above, and with our hearts as we prepare once more for our Blessed Savior to come fill us afresh. May Advent practices enable us to more fully live into the narrative of sacred time as we enter into this new liturgical year once more with and in Christ just as Mary did.
Amen.