Catechism Corner | Let It Be Done

The Advent season helps us to prepare for Christmas where we recall in faith Christ's coming among us. It is also a time in which we look at our present lives and reflect on the second coming of Christ in our own lives and at the end of the ages.

It is a season of joyous expectation in light of the Feast of Christmas. However, it is also a time of preparation in which we are invited to renew our Christian faith. We can become more attentive to the gift of our faith and to explore the implications of what it means to believe in the person of Christ and above all to become more grateful for the presence of God's love which is fully manifest in the person of Christ.

One important gift of faith which we can receive in Advent and Christmas is a profound sense of gratitude for his presence and thus the need to prepare our hearts for the power of such an event in our lives today. This Christian attitude and disposition to gratitude is most vividly reflected in the role of Mary- the Mother of our Lord.

In the early Church we know that there was a progressive discovery through faith to see the fullness of Mary's role in God's plan of salvation history. Scripture records her role in God's plan of salvation from the outset as the Mother of our Lord. In the first two chapters of Matthew's Gospel he records the infancy of Christ but what is most interesting is that Mary is only named and speaks no words. The birth of our Lord is recorded almost exclusively from the viewpoint and experience of Joseph. In contrast, Luke's gospel portrays Mary in a much more prominent role.

And thus, it is through this inspired narrative that we see the outline of her vocation from God, the Annunciation – the greeting and the message from the angel Gabriel. The stirrings of Mary's heart and her initial response in faith is that of a question "How can this be?" … then "Let it be done unto me according to your Word." The progress of her belief in God's promises and her confidence to say "Let it be done according to your Word" is truly inspiring for each Christian who has struggled to answer their vocation call.

Then through prayer and the reflection upon God's grace at work in her life we see the ultimate response of gratitude: "Mary treasured all of these things and pondered them in her heart."

From the beginning she was fixed on the mystery of this newborn child, that she was attentive to this experience as the mystery of God's salvation, and that her "fiat," her yes, progressively unfolded in her life and that thus her memory played an important role in the faith of the Church.

In the Advent season the Church's memory becomes reflected through the memory of Mary.To identify with Mary in faith during this season of Advent is to be open to receive what she received.

The first gift was that of a profound sense of gratitude for the warmth of God's love given to her in Christ. His birth, his coming into this world was to reveal the fullness of God's love and Mary was the first to believe in this love and to experience it in her life.

The second gift that Mary received was the grace of being ready and attentive, of being open to God and the power of this event in her life. This coming of Christ would disrupt her plans, it would challenge her life, the relationships of family and friends, yet through her yes, she would begin to see how God had chosen to reveal the Incarnate vision of His Son through her life. This is the grace that each of us receives to respond in truth and freedom to our vocation and calling in life. We are called to model our response of Mary in accepting and choosing our life's vocation.

As Advent unfolds it is our hope that the gifts Mary received may be part of our own preparation and reflection of the coming of Christ in our lives: a gratitude for our faith and an openness to live our vocations in Christ with greater fidelity.

Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm.