Mary and the First Advent

By Prof. Dr. Daniel C. Afonso · Updated 20 October 2026

Mary and the First Advent: the waiting of humanity

In Mary the hope of the peoples culminates, from the beginning of humanity through the whole journey of the peoples and in particular the journey of the people of Israel. All the preparations, prefigurations, and graces that filled the Old Testament converge in Mary. It can be said, with full justification, that on the eve of Christ’s coming, Mary takes up in herself and fulfills the expectation of all the centuries that preceded her. For this reason she can magnify the name of the Lord and acknowledge that through her and in her the Lord has already stretched out the power of His arm: “He has helped Israel, His servant, remembering His mercy, as He had promised to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever” (Lk 1:54-55).

Mary represents the summit of all God’s educative action on behalf of Israel

God’s work in the Old Testament consisted essentially in leading the chosen people from a carnal condition, coarse and unlike His plan, to a more spiritual condition, of greater openness, purity, and conformity with His word, so as to constitute a Temple, a Dwelling worthy to receive the Savior and to experience and celebrate the final events of the redemption and of the gift of the messianic spirit at the moment of their fulfillment. This work is accomplished in Mary.

Throughout the Old Testament a long and progressive educative action was carried out in order to lead Israel into the true faith, into faith in the one God. It is enough to recall Israel’s great profession of faith:

“Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut 6:4-5).

At the same time, God’s educative work aimed at making it understood ever more clearly that the divine design was a universal design that went beyond the limits of the race of Israel, beyond the limits intended by the Jewish people. 

It is enough to recall the great proclamations of the prophets:

“Arise, clothe yourself in light, for your light is coming, the glory of the Lord shines upon you… 
The peoples shall walk by your light,
and kings by the splendor of your rising.
Lift up your eyes round about and see:
they have all gathered together, they are coming to you.
Your sons come from afar,
your daughters are carried in the arms” (Is 60:1, 3-4).

This educative work, meant to make it understood that God is one and must be loved above all things, meant to make known God’s design for humanity, a universal design of salvation, culminates in the heart of the Virgin. 

On the one hand, Mary was prepared by the whole journey of the Hebrew people and represents the marvelous flower that blossomed in the midst of Israel at the end of God’s action in the hearts of the patriarchs and of the holy women.

On the other hand, in the opposite direction, the Old Testament, in the prophets and in the sages of Israel, converges and is gathered together in Mary into a more ardent inspiration, into a fuller and more immediate spiritual preparation for the coming of the Redeemer. 

In Mary we can contemplate the magnificent result of this educative action of God. The Mother of Jesus expresses the fullness and the fulfillment of every change that the presence of God was to bring. As Isaiah says, “every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rugged ground shall become level. The cliffs shall be leveled” (Is 40:4). Now that Mary’s time has come, it can be said in all truth that every valley is filled in, every hill is brought low. The Virgin is the way along which the Lord will be able to walk in order to present Himself to humanity, to bring to all the good news of salvation:

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, 
who makes peace heard, who announces what is good, 
who makes salvation heard, who says to Zion: Your God reigns!” (Is 52:7).

Thanks to this daughter of Zion the proclamation of the prophets is fulfilled, the promise made to Israel comes to its completion, to its full manifestation:

“as He had promised to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants, for ever” (Lk 1:55).

Mary constitutes the inauguration, already under way, of the fullness of time:

“when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5).

Note how, in this passage, the birth of the Son of God from a woman is linked to the birth of the adopted children: we pass from the fullness of time in which the Son of God is born of a woman to our own birth, to our being redeemed, set free, so as now to be brought into the adoptive sonship of God:

“Born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5).

We can already see in this text how the mystery of Mary is inseparably linked not only to the mystery of the Savior’s coming into the world, but also to the mystery of our liberation and of our baptismal rebirth as sons. “Sons in the Son”, as Saint Augustine loved to repeat. And here we must make an effort to grasp in all its realism the mystery of God who became man in history, because of Mary’s fiat. 

The decisive event of history

With the Incarnation the decisive event of history takes place in Mary, and through Mary, in the world. Perhaps we are too accustomed to contemplating this mystery, so much so that we no longer marvel at it. In reality, the fact that the Son of God, through Mary, breaks into history is the decisive and absolutely unique event of history. Nothing will ever be as important as this event.

No evolution, no scientific progress, no invention, no revolution will ever be able to bring anything remotely comparable to the Incarnation, anything so great, so decisive for the human condition, as the coming of God among us. Saint John expresses this ineffable mystery in a verse of fewer than ten words: “And the Logos became flesh and pitched His tent among us” (Jn 1:14).

Only one verse to express the fundamental event, absolutely unique and decisive in the history of the world: an event that qualitatively and ontologically changes the condition of man on earth, for it is the event that makes possible man’s participation in the life of God, in the life of the Only-Begotten Son of God:

“But to all who received Him, 
He gave the power to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name.
Who were born not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God”
(Jn 1:12-13).

The mystery of Mary stands at the center of this event. She is the first to benefit from it, and just as this event is accomplished in history through the Virgin of Nazareth, so also through her each one of us can benefit from it.

The presence of Mary in the worship of Advent

And this is the reason for our profound veneration of Mary: the historical and unique task that she had in the economy of salvation, an absolutely unrepeatable task. Mary’s presence in worship does not derive, as some would have us believe, from a kind of sublimation of femininity or of motherhood, by analogy with what occurs in certain natural religions.

Mary’s presence in the worship of the Church arises from the historically attested fact, absolutely singular and unrepeatable, by which this woman was called to be the Mother of the Only-Begotten Son of God made man. This is the reason for Mary’s presence in worship, and nothing else: it derives from the fact that she is the Theotokos, as the faith of the Church has affirmed since the earliest centuries.

This is the essential and decisive fact, the motive of our veneration and of Mary’s presence in our liturgy. “He was born of the Virgin Mary”, we proclaim in the Apostles’ Creed. “He was incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became man”, we repeat in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

God’s ways know neither turning back nor regret; Mary maintains toward every man and toward every member of the Body of Christ the same task that she had toward Christ and for the accomplishment of His mystery of salvation.

God is faithful 

The task that Mary once had in history continues to this day, and she will continue to have it for ever. Just as she had an eminent mission in the birth of Christ, so she retains an eminent mission in the birth of the new children of God in the Baptism of the Church.

Mary is perpetually Mother; she is Mother of the Church and Mother of each one of us. But in order to understand this mystery of Mary’s present motherhood, we must refer for a moment to Mary’s universal motherhood, through which Mary is the Mother of the peoples. Only then will we be able to understand the greatness of this motherhood of Mary as it relates to every baptized person, to every man who is “born of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3:5), and to the baptismal and spiritual journey of every baptized person.

Collect for December 21

Hear, O Lord, the prayer of your people,
who rejoice at the coming of your Son
in the humility of our flesh,
and grant us the gift of eternal life
when He comes in His glory.
He who is God, and lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
for ever and ever.

To explore further Mary’s role in the first Advent and in the history of salvation, consult the encyclical Redemptoris Mater by John Paul II, on Mary in the pilgrimage of faith.

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