Mary, Our Model for Advent

 God chose us in Christ before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight, to be full of love. - Ephesians 1: 4

Today's feast day fits perfectly into the Advent preparation for the coming of Jesus into our world.  Mary had a unique calling from God to be the mother of Jesus, to bring him forth into the world in a physical, biological sense.  Yet, Mary also was mother in a very spiritual way to Jesus as well, and so provides us a model to follow in our calling to bring Jesus into the world in our lives.

We, like Mary, are called to be holy and blameless, to be full of love.  We are called to bear Christ in our very beings and to bring Christ forth in the world through our deeds of love and service to others.  As Mary was open to this mission from the angel so we must be, and just as Mary's first impulse upon accepting this message was to go and serve her cousin in need, so we too must have as our impulse this same service to our fellow human beings in need.  

Mary, in turn, was served by her cousin Elizabeth, and this is the mystery of the Church in miniature.  Each of us is called to bring forth Christ to the world through service to each other.  The Church is the womb, the place of nourishment that enables us to bring Christ forth to the world in our lives.  Mary as the first disciple becomes our model to follow as we prepare ourselves to be bearers of Christ.