December 22, 2024, Fourth Sunday of Advent
We know little about the life of Mary, and nothing about her life before the Annunciation. From the earliest days of the church pious stories emerged about her life and her preparation to become the mother of the messiah; the Mother of God. While we do not hear the annunciation Gospel proclaimed this Advent we recall that St. Luke records that the angel referred to her as the “most highly favored (blessed) of God. Now, as Mary travels from Nazareth to visit her elder relative Elizabeth this idea of blessedness comes up again. We call Mary “blessed” as we honor her as the first disciple of Jesus; the first daughter of the kingdom.
We must presume that even though they lived some distance apart, that Elizabeth knew Mary and that Mary knew Elizabeth. Elizabeth is significantly older than Mary, perhaps even forty years, so they are not contemporaries and Mary would have deferred to Elizabeth as an older relative.
The heartfelt and faith-filled way in which Luke records the greeting of Mary by Elizabeth, then, reflects and upending of cultural expectations, reflecting the status that Mary now has as the theotokos, the one who is bearing God into the world.
The church has assigned many titles to Mary throughout the course of history. Some of these titles are recognized and honored universally — Our Lady of the Assumption (patroness of our diocese) among them. Some honorifics are very localized, such as Our Lady of Guidance, a venerated icon of Mary found in Manila. While there are eight universally recognized apparitions of the Blessed Mother, many others are accepted throughout the world. The Litany of the Mary contains fifty different titles assigned to Mary. It is evident that Mary was referred to as The New Eve early in the second century, while the aforementioned theotokos was formally defined at the Council of Ephesus in 451, the first of the many titles of Mary to be defined by a council. Mary, Mother of the Church, was declared at the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965.
Yet, of all of these titles, the one that resonates deeply with the church, and the one that we often tend to gloss over, is this one given to her by God through the Angel Gabriel: Most blessed one (highly favored one).
All of the titles of Mary, and all of doctrinal definitions concerning Mary flow from this one simple expression.
Mary is the Immaculate Conception because she was highly favored of God at the moment of her conception. We celebrate the Assumption of Mary, the culmination of a life of blessedness, marked by her joys and the seven sorrows of her life. Mary is the Queen of Heaven, assuming her place with her Son, the King of the Kingdom of God.
As we pray each day the Ave we repeat in part the words of the Angel, “blessed are you among women …”
As the First Daughter of the Kingdom, the first to hear the words of the angel and the first to learn of the coming of the Messiah into the world, Mary stands as a prophet, not shouting out to the world as did the prophets who preceded her, but in the subtle and loving way that she accompanied the church at the outset of the mission to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Each of the apparitions of Mary repeat her prophetic call first heard at the wedding feast in Cana as she prepared Jesus for the beginning of his ministry: “do whatever he tells you.”
As we prepare for the coming of Christmas, and as we place and bless the iconic manger scene (first used by St. Francis of Assisi 800 years ago this Christmas) Mary stands as the silent yet necessary co-operator with God in the greatest miracle of all: the Incarnation of the Divine Word of God, Jesus Christ. Mary is most blessed indeed.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.