Advent and the Words of Our Lady

Concilium Allocutio December 2012

By Fr. Bede McGregor O.P.
Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary

Advent and the Words of Our Lady

It has been sometimes said that the words of Our Lady that are recorded in Sacred Scripture are relatively few. That may be true. But they are sublimely precious, grace filled and full of profound insight and of limitless value to every true disciple of Jesus. Her words also give us the most authentic portrait of the inner life and essential character of Mary. There is no better way of coming to know and love Mary than through her own words especially when she is praying to God. And as you might expect every recorded word that Mary speaks in Scripture is found in the Legion Handbook and the Legion Prayers.

Today, because our meeting is taking place on Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Gaudete is simply the Latin for rejoice I want to reflect on a few words of Our Lady that reveal to us a fundamental characteristic of her very identity. Mary sings aloud: ‘My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.’ She is essentially a person of deep and habitual joy. We all know the place of joy in our Christian life. Blessed Columba Marmion said that ‘joy is the only infallible sign of the presence of God in our lives’ and again: ‘Joy is the echo of the presence of God in our lives.’ And many saints and spiritual writers say the same thing in similar words. So because the presence of God was so intimate to Mary the spirit of joy was measureless in her. I stress this truth for us legionaries because the spirit of the Legion must be unmistakeably the spirit of Mary. So if there is only a meagre spirit of joy in our individual lives and in our meetings then we have not yet got the authentic spirit of the Legion.

Let us explore a little bit the joy of Mary. She tells us that she rejoices because of God her Saviour. So nothing was more precious to her than the gift of her redemption. And it was a very special way of redemption, utterly unique. From the first moment of her existence she was totally graced, freed from original sin and all personal sin. Never even for a split second was she under the influence of Satan, for God made a pre-emptive strike that flooded every aspect of her very existence with his grace and presence. No wonder when she appeared to Saint Catherine Laboure she asked that a medal be struck of her as the Immaculate Conception and it was only much later as the result of so many healings and miracles attributed to the wearing of the medal that it became known as the Miraculous Medal. Then after the definition by Pope Pius IX of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette and revealed her identity as the Immaculate Conception. This Marian title was the striking proclamation and sign of the gift of her redemption and ours. It is a two word statement of the whole Gospel. It is the great sign of the primacy of grace over sin. It speaks of God’s infinite love for Mary and through her for us. It is the unforgettable sign of the absolute certainty of Christian hope. The Immaculate Conception was God’s preparation of Mary to be the Mother of His Son and to be the hallowed place of his welcome here on earth. She becomes the Woman of Advent, the one who more than anyone else knows how to look forward to the coming of the Saviour and the great expert in giving hospitality to God in her heart. I don’t have to tell you about the radical role the Immaculate Conception plays in the Legion from the symbolic language of the Legion Altar and the miraculous medal to the solid doctrinal foundations of the Legion.

What about the sorrows in the life of Mary? Is she not the Woman and Mother of Sorrows? Yes, indeed a sword pierced her very heart and not just one but several. No one can bypass the cross in their life. But Mary sees all suffering in the context of the providence of God’s love for her. The saints see suffering as a gift of God, an invitation to share in the redemptive mission of Christ on the Cross and the salvation of souls. By God’s grace Mary shares in a unique way the redemption of the world so that she is called a Co-Redemptrix and indeed the mediatrix of all graces. So although the suffering of Mary is all too real and deep, it cannot remove the joy of the most intimate communion with the Trinity in her heart. The portrait of Mary that emerges from her own words is that of a strong woman indeed the victorious Mother at the side of her Son, the Woman of Genesis.

Let me make at least one practical application concerning the joy of Mary to us legionaries. What we say of Mary is the paradigm of what her legionaries work towards. Joy must be a major characteristic of the legionary. Sometimes, in certain parts of the Legion world we can become discouraged by our apparent lack of success in recruiting new members. Maybe the cause of this could be that there is not sufficient joy in us and our meetings. It is certain that joy in the spirit of Mary would act like a magnet. May the season of Advent, Christmas and the New Year be a time when we reflect on Mary the cause of our joy and the most attractive dimension of her Legion. A happy and Marian Christmas and New Year to you all.