I like to think about Mary, my spiritual mother, during this Advent season. She is the one who became the mother of Jesus and brought the first Advent of the Christ into our history. She is the active agent cooperating with God in the plan of salvation history.As we prepare for the event of Jesus' Birth at Christmas, we are more interested in participating in his mysteries through prayer and the liturgy, namely, the paschal mysteries. In the spirit of Mary we are more interested in participation than in a commemoration of a past event. That moment is gone, but our faith has brought about a birthday of Christ each day during Advent and the rest of the year through the mysteries of our faith, especially the Paschal Mystery of Jesus.
We turn to Mary who is the person who did this for the first time. She was born in the soil of Judaism and listened to the words of Isaiah, our leading Advent prophet. She probably was pondering over some of the same passages that we do during this season. She full-heartedly agreed with her YES to God and thus gave birth to the baby Jesus, first through her faith, then through her flesh.
She will continue to pray and ponder over this event in her heart while participating as a faithful disciple of Jesus in all the events of his life from conception, to birth, to early years and ministry and then to his death upon the Cross. She is a pilgrim with him on his trips to Jerusalem including his last memorable and fateful one. Yes, Mary is a great model for this season of Advent. Blessed is she who believed that the word of the Lord would be accomplished in her. Amen.
Fr, Bertrand Buby, S.M.
