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The Light of the World
The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the
Son of the Most High” (Gospel). How is this to be? “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” Mary believes. She recognizes this as the
will of God and submits herself to His designs with complete surrender and self-forgetfulness.
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.” In that moment
“the Word was made flesh,” and the Virgin’s obedience, purity, and love bore fruit. “Blessed art
thou that thou hast believed” (Lk 1:45).
“The Word was made flesh” in the womb of the Virgin, in whose house we are today assembled.
Mary has become a new heaven, a heaven on earth, and we cry out: “Drop down dew ye
heavens, and let the clouds rain the Just One.” Mary is the “earth” which is to “be opened and
bud forth a Savior”; she is the “heavens” which “show forth the glory of God” (Introit). In the
Incarnation was fulfilled the prophecy made by Isaias seven hundred years before the birth of
Christ. “The Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and His name shall be called Emmanuel,” God with us (Epistle). “And the Word was made flesh”
( Jn 1:14) through the Virgin Mary, who conceived by the Holy Ghost.
Come let us adore the Word Incarnate. Mary is the tabernacle of the covenant in
which God draws near to men. “In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be prepared on the top of the mountains [that is, Sion, Mary, the dwelling place of
God], and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many
people shall go and say: come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the
house of the God of Jacob [to Mary] and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk
in His paths, for the law [that is, the Word, Christ] shall come forth from Sion, and the
word of the Lord [Christ] from Jerusalem [Mary]. . . . O house of Jacob, come ye and let
us walk in the light of the Lord our God,” which is brought to us by Mary (First lesson).
We contemplate with faith and devotion the mystery that is accomplished in the Virgin
Mary. “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Ghost.”
In adoration and wonder we bend our knee, for “the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us.”
Today we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice in the church of St. Mary Major, the house of Mary. Mary
is the new Jerusalem, the dwelling place of the divine Savior. In a few short days she will bring
forth the fruit of her blessed womb.
At the Communion we sing, “Behold a virgin shall conceive.” At the moment when the angel
brought her the message and Mary conceived of the Holy Ghost, she experienced, as it were,
her first Holy Communion. This blessed communion was full of blessing for Mary herself and
for the whole human race. As often as the children of the Church approach the Communion rail
to receive the body of the Lord, the message of the angel is, in a sense, again repeated: “Behold a
virgin shall conceive.” When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we are, in the mind of the liturgy, the
Virgin of Nazareth, and we experience in ourselves the blessed conception which we celebrate
today in the church of St. Mary Major. We share with Mary the experience of conceiving the
Son of God and having Him as truly in our hearts as she had. “Behold a virgin shall conceive. . . .
His name shall be called Emmanuel,” God with us. Oh, that we might realize in ourselves the
wonderful teaching of the liturgy.
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