Our Lady of Advent and Christian Baptism

Our Lady of Advent and Christian Baptism

Not only in the Church in general, but also in each one of us, in our spiritual life, we experience a mystery of continual Advent, of Christ’s progressive coming in us, until we reach the full stature of the new man reborn of water and the Spirit (cf. Jn 3:5), so as to attain the stature of the incarnate Son of God (cf. Eph 4:13).

We live on this journey and in this expectation that Christ may fill our life more and more and transform us. If the grace of baptism is already linked in various ways to Mary’s task in the history of salvation and in the history of each one of us, the same can be said, and with equal force, of the growth of each one of us in this baptismal life.

From the first moments to the highest summits of spirituality, it is always Mary who prepares the coming of Jesus in us, who constantly and fully forms Jesus in us, the baptized. Mary accompanies the whole path of spiritual regeneration and spiritual growth in Christ, from its beginning to its fullness.

Baptism is this mystery of the birth of Christ in us

The spiritual life is growth and progressive development in this mystery of the birth of Christ in us, which began with baptism. There is a mystery of the nativity that is celebrated continually throughout our spiritual existence: it has its roots in baptism, in which Mary carries out her task.

The perennial birth of the Lord Jesus in us constitutes the essential core of every Christian journey. Baptism grounds this birth ontologically; it grounds it once and for all. Such is the meaning of the baptismal character. Through sin one can lose grace and can no longer benefit from this mystery of birth in Christ, but one will never lose the right to recover it, when, after sin, one recovers the filial life.

Baptism is an irrevocable covenant, given once and for all. The path of life in the Spirit, better known as the state of grace, can be lost, but this covenant will not be canceled. That is why it will always be possible to regain possession of grace, provided one acknowledges one’s guilt and is reconciled with the Lord.

Baptism is an irrevocable covenant because it is not based on our correspondence or lack of correspondence, but on God’s absolute faithfulness to His promises. We may be unfaithful, but God remains faithful; He does not fail in His action, in His close covenant with each one of us, thanks to baptism.

A radical, irrevocable, definitive birth that establishes, if we desire it and are fully available, an unceasing path of transformation of ourselves into Jesus, to the point of being able to say with Saint Paul: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). This is the meaning of baptism and of the baptismal journey. To be baptized means to accept being transformed little by little into Christ Jesus, so that we may truly become children of the Father in the fullness of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This is the foundation of the common vocation to holiness. 

Thanks to baptism we are already radically holy and called to bring to fullness this ontological baptismal holiness received once and for all. Here too lies the foundation of the common priesthood of the faithful, by which we are all called to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God and to make our life a living oblation, a thanksgiving to the Father (cf. Rom 12:1). 

This is the foundation of the responsibility, or rather the co-responsibility, of all Christians in building up the Church in the world. Thanks to baptism, we are all involved in this history of salvation, which has its central point in the Church and must extend to all humanity until its fullness, until the parousia. Here too Mary fulfills a primary mission. 

Just as the Handmaid of the Lord had an eminent task in the birth of Christ, according to the human nature assumed by the Son of God in the world, so too she continues to have an eminent task in preparing the present coming of Jesus in us, the baptized, and continues to fulfill an eminent task of forming Christ in us, of forming us to the measure of Christ, the new Man. 

Mary is Mother not only because she brought forth Christ, the Emmanuel, among us once and for all, but she is also Mother, and at the same time, because she cooperates in the spiritual regeneration of all of us, in the growth of each one of us in Christ the Only-Begotten. Through the Paschal Spirit of the Son she brought forth, Mary has the same task with regard to the members of Christ that she had with Christ.

Mary is fully Mother of Christ and of the Church, and mother of each one of us. In this regard, the Fathers of the Church liked to draw a parallel between the motherhood of Mary and the motherhood of the Church in baptismal regeneration. 

Saint John Paul II says:

“There are only two problems: our fidelity to the Covenant with eternal Wisdom, which is the source of a true culture, which means the growth of man, and fidelity to the promises of our baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

It is no accident that a large icon of Mary as Mother was often found near the baptismal font, precisely because the intention was to show this continuity between Mary’s motherhood in bringing forth Christ for the world and Mary’s motherhood in the baptismal generation of Christians. 

If all this is true, it explains why there can be no authentic spiritual journey and no true growth of Jesus in us that does not pass through the hands of Mary. There is no true fulfillment of the baptismal life that is not accomplished on the model of the Fiat and of her total availability to the Father for the realization of His plan of salvation in the world. 

In this sense, Mary is a model of Christian spirituality: 

• a model of waiting for the Savior.
• a model of readiness to welcome the Redeemer of man and of the world. 

Mary is the figure of Advent for each one of us

Baptism is that fundamental event which makes us share in the life of Christ and of the Church. In this regard, Mary is profoundly related to baptism. There is a presence of the Virgin in our baptism: 

• she is there in the preparation.
• she is there in the fulfillment. 
• she is there throughout our baptismal journey. 

Moreover, looking at Mary as the exemplary icon of fidelity to the divine plan, we know the most authentic way to live out our baptismal life in response to God’s call in our existence and to the plan He has for each one of us.

To explore more deeply the relationship between Mary, Advent, and the sacraments, consult the Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus of Paul VI, on Mary in the liturgical calendar.

Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.