Advent-a time to wait in hope and prepare with Mary Immaculate...

Advent-a time to wait in hope and prepare with Mary Immaculate...

First, let me take the opportunity to wish you a Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception, especially to parishioners of Immaculate Conception as they celebrate their patron saint day. Every year during Advent, we have an excellent opportunity to celebrate the Immaculate Conception and ask her intercession for us so we may follow her example while joyfully waiting for the birth of baby Jesus.

We are familiar with the story of Bernadette Soubirous, who received a vision. At 14, Mary appeared to Bernadette in a cave above the banks of the Gave River near Lourdes. She was poor and young, so no one believed her. However, the vision continued. Finally, the local priest told Bernadette to inquire about the woman's name. She followed his directions and asked the woman, and she answered, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Today, thousands of people go on pilgrimage to Lourdes and receive many blessings. In 2001, I had the privilege of being one of the pilgrims and praying in that beautiful, holy place.

The Immaculate Conception is a dogma originating from sound Christian tradition. Monks in Palestinian monasteries began celebrating the feast of the Conception of Our Lady by the end of the 7th century. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception spread in Italy (9th century), England (11th century), and France (12th century). Pope Leo VI propagated the celebration, and Pope Sixtus IV approved it as a feast. Finally, in 1854, Pope Pius IX, in his Apostolic Constitution, “Ineffabilis Deus,” meaning “God ineffable,” defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Mary approved it by declaring to Bernadette at Lourdes, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” In 1846, the US Bishops chose Our Lady in her Immaculate Conception as the Patroness of the United States.

The first reading is from Genesis (3:9-15,20), for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception narrates God's promise. Adam and Eve were in perfect communion with God. At the time of their fall, God made a promise, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (3:15). From the  Gospel of Luke (1:26-38), we read about that woman. God sent the angel Gabriel to her and said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you" (1:28). Mary was full of grace; there was no place for the corruption of sin. Mary is the new Eve who gave birth to the new Adam, Jesus. These readings for the celebration of the Immaculate Conception are extra beautiful, especially when we are in the Advent season.

For the Second Sunday of Advent, the theme is waiting in hope and preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. In the first reading from the book of Isaiah 11:1-10, a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah speaks about Jesse, the father of David. A shoot from the stump of Jesse is a metaphor for the Kingdom of David. The Babylonians and Assyrians destroyed the kingdom of David, but a branch is going to come from the house of Jesse, and that branch is the Messiah to restore it. The new king, the Messiah, would be filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The weapon of the new king is His Word. Revelation 1:16, we read, “A sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth, and his face shone like the sun at its brightest.” And St. Paul brings the image of the Word of God in Ephesians 6:17. He says, “Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Isaiah says, in the new kingdom, there will be peace and harmony, “The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb….” It is the image of returning to the original peace of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:30). The animals were present in the cave with the newborn king: a kind of new Eden on the night of Jesus’ birth. Jesus is our new Adam, bringing us back to Eden. He made it possible to have access to the Tree of Life through the Eucharist. Moses led the Israelites from slavery to the promised land. Jesus is the new Moses, who led us from slavery to sin to freedom.

In the Gospel reading from Matthew (3:1-12), John the Baptist was preaching in the Judean desert by the bank of Jordan. It was not far from Jericho. Jericho was a significant trade route, so many more people could come to hear John the Baptist. John asked them to prepare for the new exodus. We know the Old Testament exodus ended by the Jordan, and they entered the Promised Land. John heralded the coming of the new exodus. People kept coming to listen to John and receive baptism of  repentance.

John was proclaiming one who is to come and invited them to prepare the way, to repent, and to bear fruit. He told them, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” He said, “…the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals.” In those days, a slave carried the sandals. John was saying he is not even worthy to be Jesus’s slave. John was pointing to Jesus and said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

As we prepare for Christmas and ultimately for the Second Coming, we need to listen to John the Baptist and embrace the invitation for the baptism of repentance. It is a call for a change of mind and heart. Every day, we need to allow our newborn King, a shoot from the stump of Jesse, reborn in our minds and hearts, so that we may live in harmony. We listen to John the Baptist; at the same time, we are sent out to share the Good News and invite others to celebrate the birth of the newborn king with us.