Advent Reflection: The Drama of Salvation History

From the beginning of Advent, we are presented in the Liturgy with a people that are desperate for help. In the Sunday readings, we get glimpses of the story. The Israelites are longing and begging for God, and rejoicing at each promise that He makes for the future. In this, we see merely a snapshot of the expansive story of creation as a whole. An Advent tradition of walking through salvation history with the Jesse Tree fills in some of the context, and the true scope of man’s plight takes form. God created everything, and humanity soon turned away from Him. He intervenes to save us from some of the bad consequences our own actions have merited. He promises better things to come and sets down how it’s going to happen. It lasts for a very short time, then humanity turns away from Him again. A pattern quickly arises of God starting afresh, people going astray, becoming miserable, calling out to God, He coming in to recreate things again. On and on and on. For centuries. Pride and falls. Our Pleading. God promising. Beautiful images of a better future. Yearning, striving, falling. Pleading. Crying out. God promising… we desperately grasping…

And then… the angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. This young virgin takes her place in the epic story. This is not merited. This is not planned, plotted, or schemed. When presented with this latest promise, she does not grasp or fumble it through her own self-centeredness. Rather, Mother Mary receives her role with humility and surrender. “May it be done to me according to your word.”

This time God Himself came to set things right, and the tale shifts course. But has anything really changed? The story still seems to go on much like it did before. We strive, grasp, and fall. There are so many broken families, hurting souls, and reasons to cry out. Wars and persecutions threaten nations. Divisions threaten God’s people. No, it seems, on the surface, that not everything has changed. But the story did, in fact, take on a new light. While much of the world goes on as it always has, we now have the ability to live differently as Christians. Not by any merit of ours. Not by striving or plotting, but by receiving our own role with humility and surrender, just as Mary did. God Incarnate set us free through His passion, death, and resurrection. We are now invited to live in that freedom, with God’s continued help. “Christian, recognize your dignity,” St. Leo the Great says in a sermon for the Nativity. Recognize your dignity, and “refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct. Remember the Head and the Body of which you are a member. Recollect that you were rescued from the power of darkness and brought out into God’s light and kingdom.”

This latest re-creation, set in motion by the Incarnation of God Himself, is being worked out in time. The course shifted, indeed, but we must follow it to the end. The re-creation will not be complete until God comes again in glory at the end of time. So what do we do now, in the midst of the “already and not yet,” as we celebrate God’s coming among us but wait for the fullness of the Kingdom? We can embrace the grace we already have by growing in virtue. We can also continue to beg for God to flood our lives ever more. “Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.” This is the prayer the Church gives us for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and it is also repeated daily at the end of the Angelus. These words situate us perfectly in this part of the story. We’ve heard the good news, but we also await the glory of resurrection and beg for God’s grace to get us there.

Ultimately, though, in this current time, we must receive the unique role that God has in mind for each of us as the story continues. Not by grasping, coming up with our own ideas, or trying to write the next chapter all by ourselves. Rather, we do this just as Mary did, with humility and surrender. We will never do this perfectly, but we can strive to imitate her by making her words our own. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Repeating this over and over again, our hearts will be transformed until they are able to receive what God has to pour into them. May this be the new cry - the most fervent plea - on our lips as we celebrate Christmas this year and await the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in the world to come.