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The Christmas Cycle
and sinfulness; God is near all those who recognize their own worthlessness and place all their
trust in Him. God loves the humble man.
“Hail Mary, full of grace” (Offertory). Today the Church makes her offering to God with
this greeting to Mary on her lips. Mary spoke her fiat with deep humility and faith, and
thus opened wide her soul to God. When she had spoken her assent, the power of the Most
High could overshadow her and she could conceive the Son of God. The Fathers of the
Church tell us that she conceived Him first of all in spirit; that is, by faith, virginal purity,
humility — by her complete conformity to the designs of God and by the frank acknowledgment
of her own unworthiness. Only after she had thus been prepared in spirit did she
conceive Him in the flesh. It was necessary that she first detach herself from all that is not
godly and conform her will and her desires to those of the Almighty. Only then could God
take complete possession of her and man could address her: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the
Lord is with thee; blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”
“Behold a virgin shall conceive” (Communion). To properly celebrate Christmas and enjoy
the full fruit of the Incarnation, we must, like Mary, become virgins and handmaids of the Lord.
We must emulate her purity, her sinlessness, her freedom from pride and self-love, her complete
conformity to the will of God. We must recognize our complete dependence on the power of
the Most High for light, guidance, and help from above. We must open our hearts to Him and
imitate Mary in her complete offering of self to the designs of God. We must, like her, eradicate
from our lives all willful faults, and be unwavering in our service of God and devotion to Him.
We must be prepared to sacrifice all that we have without asking what return will be made to
us. We must not falter when we are misunderstood, when our actions are falsely construed, and
when we are falsely accused by others.
“He that judgeth me is the Lord, [therefore] to me it is a very small thing to be judged
by you or by man’s day; but neither do I judge my own self.” For we are the handmaids of
the Lord, “the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God” (Epistle).
The Church sees in her ministers and her people, not merely fallen men, but men who are
called by Christ to act in His name and to offer to God the Holy Sacrifice and administer the
sacraments. Christ lives in them, and through them He purifies souls, sanctifying them and
leading them to God. Like Mary, we are handmaids since we are members of the mystical
body of Christ. The more closely we unite ourselves to the mystical body, the more fully is
Christ’s divine life realized in us.
“Behold a virgin shall conceive.” With ardent desire we cry out with the liturgy today: “Let the
clouds rain the just.” Ye heavens, rain down Christ, the Just One, and with Him His grace, His
strength, and the divine life. “Let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior” (Introit). By the
earth is meant our soul, which during Advent is prepared to bring forth the Savior by penance,
self-denial, and an intense desire for the coming of the Redeemer. Now that the soil of our soul
has been thus prepared, it can receive the seed of Christ and bring forth its fruit. The fruit which
our soul is to bear is the Emmanuel, God with us, the new man.
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled, and
every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough ways plain; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Gospel).
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