A virgin Mother, prophet, and Church in Advent

Mary: the Virgin Mother, Prophet, and Image of the Church in Advent

Mary is the woman of the fullness of time (cf. Gal 4:4-7): she closes one era and opens the future.The merciful and faithful power of God will be manifested before the Virgin, as it once gave charismatic children to sterile women, called to save the people: Isaac from Sarah, Samson from Manoah’s wife, Samuel from Hannah, and John from Elizabeth.Luke evokes the birth of John the Baptist (cf. Lk 1:7 “They did not have children, for Elizabeth was barren. They were both advanced in years”) to highlight the incomparable exceptionality of Mary’s election. To be the mother not of one savior, but of the Savior (Lk 1:32-33 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign forever over the house of Jacob. His kingdom will never end”).Thus, divine motherhood is highlighted as a splendid expression of God’s sovereign love “for us humans and for our salvation”. Wishing to redeem our humanity deeply, God identified with us in all things, entering into the lineage of Adam and passing through Mary.Therefore, the Church, since the Council of Ephesus (431), confesses that the Virgin is the Mother of God: it is the reality and concreteness with which it recognizes the humanity of the Word, in whom God descends to touch each man in the deepest and most intimate place where everyone is wounded.The Prophetical VirginityMary realized the anticipation of the celibate for the kingdom of God not in the sense of a vow, but in accordance with a fullness of life of which she is a permanent witness that her Son is God and man. It is not a matter of legal or even moral purity, or flight from the world like the Essenes, or the Asian spirit of asceticism.The sense of virginity must be placed at the peak of the eschatological impulse and tension generated by the prophetic movement. Thus, Mary was the first to experience full freedom and paved the way for those who renounce worldly things in the perspective of “a hundredfold” (Mt 19:29: “And whoever leaves houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life”). These “a hundredfold” are the messianic goods, that is, the Son, God with us, already symbolized in YHWH present in the ark of the covenant.Annunciation and Incarnation are the components that determine Mary’s life, imprinting her with an indelible character. These events demand from her absolute virginity, of which physical integrity is a sign. The virginity of the Mother of God implies a radical and exclusive donation of her whole person to God, in total availability, which allows the Spirit to shape her body and her heart. Having become “pure availability,” the Virgin can be the temple of the new covenant, to illuminate the world and history with a new light.As happened to the Virgin, purified and sanctified by the Spirit from the moment of conception and filled with blessing and sanctification by the Spirit from the announcement of the angel, so it should be for the Church and Christians. The virginity of Mary, reflecting the existence of Christ, is the mirror in which the believer must look to conform his life to the impulses of the Spirit. Indeed, despite all possible optimal preparation, the word-will of God breaks forth unexpectedly and imprevisibly, with needs that, in any case, demand unprecedented responses. It is not possible, in the light of reason and only with human forces, to understand and accept divine realities to their last consequences. Mary, with her “fiat,” after the existential obedience of Jesus (cf. Hebr 10:5ff), reached the highest point.The Virgin-mother, type of the ChurchIn fulfilling the prophetic expectation, after the prolonged and intense dialogue between God and man, the faith of Mary, who embraces the Word, conceives the Word of God, and becomes the principle and sign of the redeemed, is placed before us as a reality and model for the Church.By contemplating the wonders that God accomplished in her, the Church in some way probes its own being and history. If there is a moment when the Virgin Mother clearly reveals herself as a type of the Church, it is during the natal cycle. This theme will be developed primarily during the paschal season and in the great Marian feasts.The Gospel of Luke’s account of the infancy resembles very much the Gospel of the Church’s infancy found in the Acts of the Apostles:– The Spirit who brings about the first Pentecost over Mary (Lk 1:35 “And 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 holy; he will be called Son of God”) is the same Spirit who rests upon the apostles (Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”).– Mary departs in haste (Lk 1:39 “In those days Mary arose and went in haste into the hill country to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth”) and the disciples, after leaving the cenacle, begin to announce the word of God and the resurrection of the dead, unable to keep silent about what they have seen and heard: Acts 5:20 “But go, present yourselves to the temple and announce to the people the good news, and that the promised deliverance has come through Christ Jesus.”Mary’s visit to Elizabeth responds to the impetus derived from this “proto-Pentecost.”Mary is a model of the availability of the Spirit to mission for the sake of the Gospel. The impulse that animates her is rooted in the fundamental impulse of the Son who comes into the world, as availability for life and death, precisely because moved by the Spirit (cf. Lk 3:2 “And he went throughout all the region of the Jordan, preaching baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”). Lk 4:1 “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.”)The Gospels of the Infancy also highlight, in their own way, the work of the Spirit. We find this action especially in relation to Mary’s fertile virginity. The Virgin who believes in the Archangel and conceives is already the origin of the Church, even before Pentecost. Virginity becomes the sign that characterizes the new time, that of the Spirit. From the beginning, through Mary, the Church receives this spiritual connotation alongside that of Mother, constituting itself as Virgin by God’s election and as Mother by the adopted children through the Spirit in Christ who generates through Baptism.Final PrayerHymn of the Solemnity of Saint Mary, Mother of GodA Jewish root blooms, The virgin mother gives birth. Mary offers the world Who comes to save it: Jesus.She wraps in a blue cloak And embraces the Son of God. She reclines in a straw bed Who with his Father made the heavens.The same who gave us the law, Is born under the law. The mother’s milk awaits, A slave becomes the king.A more fruitful sun breaks forth, From death it melts the chains. Mary brings God into the world, Come, adore him, nations!To the Father and the Spirit united, Son of God, light of light. By a virgin mother granted, We adore you, Jesus!To delve deeper into Mary’s titles as Mother, Prophet, and image of the Church, consult Pope John Paul II’s encyclical *Redemptoris Mater* on Mary’s mission in the life of the Church.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and a Postgraduate Degree in Mariology.