“Truly art thou a star, O Mary!”

Note: The following homily was preached on the Fourth Sunday of Advent (extraordinary form), December 22, 2024, at the Church of the Holy Innocents, Manhattan.

If you attended our Advent lecture series, you will recall that we noted that the genealogy of St. Matthew, writing his Gospel for Jews, uses Joseph’s line and traces Our Lord’s origins back to Abraham, while St. Luke, writing for Gentiles, uses Mary’s line and traces Jesus’ origins all the way back to none other than Adam! Considering the Lucan genealogy today in the Usus Antiquior, let’s reflect on its implications and likewise place Our Lady in high relief, traditionally done on this last Sunday of Advent.

If you were God and had to find a suitable home for your Son, what would you select as the proper environment and persons to be involved?

If you’re like most people, you would probably choose a royal family, or at least one of substantial means and influence. You would search for the best city in the world, one offering the best possibilities for your Son’s growth into manhood; no doubt, you would likewise want the finest section of that finest city. You would also take great care in finding the right race for your son; after all, you wouldn’t want him to be tainted with wrong blood or bad genes. The joyful announcement of the birth would be made to anybody who was somebody.

The Infancy Narratives of Matthew and Luke bring us into contact with some of the cast and scenery that formed a part of the drama of the birth of the Messiah. As we look at the situation, we might almost be tempted to make the blasphemous observation that God surely didn’t take all that much trouble in trying to find the right home for His Son, but such a thought would be incorrect and shallow. God did expend much time and energy in His selection process; the difference is that He wasn’t looking for the same things we might think important. And so, we hear about that sleepy little backwater town of Bethlehem. Poor, oppressed Jews provided the race, while a lowly carpenter and his wife were to give God’s Son a home. The birth announcement invited ignorant, dirty shepherds to the baby’s “shower”.

We hear these details year after year, not simply to rehearse circumstances because we might be forgetful; they are as familiar to us as the circumstances of our own birth – maybe even more so. These facts are brought to mind to make a point that we tend to forget or overlook: God deliberately chose the time and place and persons for His Son’s birth. Poverty and littleness were no accident or unfortunate turn of events. No, God had this plan in mind from all eternity to illustrate that He loves and trusts most those who have the least, probably because they love and trust Him the most.

Throughout salvation history, it was God’s poor and humble people–the anawim–who pushed forward God’s plan for mankind’s redemption. Those people were so precious and indispensable because of their firm trust in God. It may well be this virtue of trust that gives us a clue as to why so often Christmas means more to children than to others. The cynical and sophisticated people of Our Lord’s day missed out on the Messiah because they thought they had it all worked out so well. However, the sincere and simple believers reaped a rich harvest. Like Our Lady, they trusted that the Lord’s Word to them would be fulfilled.

In the few days remaining to the Advent season, the Church would have us practice, with intensity, the virtues of trust, openness to others, and cooperation with God’s will and plan. Mary prepared herself so well during that first Advent that Elizabeth knew, almost intuitively, that the Lord was with her. Has your Advent been such that others will see Christ in you this Christmas?

Throughout this season of joyful anticipation, we have been calling to our side the preeminent Woman of Advent in the lovely Alma Redemptoris Mater, invoking her particularly as the Stella Maris, Star of the Sea. The always-reliable and insightful Cardinal Newman waxes eloquently about Our Lady under this title. Take a listen:

Truly art thou a star, O Mary! Our Lord indeed Himself, Jesus Christ, He is the truest and chiefest Star, the bright and morning Star, as St. John calls Him; that Star which was foretold from the beginning as destined to rise out of Israel, and which was displayed in figure by the star which appeared to the wise men in the East. But if the wise and learned and they who teach men in justice shall shine as stars for ever and ever; if the angels of the Churches are called stars in the Hand of Christ; if He honoured the apostles even in the days of their flesh by a title, calling them lights of the world; if even those angels who fell from Heaven are called by the Beloved Disciple stars; if lastly all the saints in bliss are called stars, in that they are like stars differing from stars in glory; therefore most assuredly, without any derogation from the honour of Our Lord, is Mary His Mother called the Star of the Sea, and the more so because even on her head she wears a crown of twelve stars. Jesus is the Light of the World, illuminating every man who cometh into it, opening our eyes with the gift of faith, making souls luminous by His Almighty grace; and Mary is the Star, shining with the light of Jesus, fair as the moon, and special as the sun, the star of the heavens, which it is good to look upon, the star of the sea, which is welcome to the tempest-tossed, at whose smile the evil spirit flies, the passions are hushed, and peace is poured upon the soul.

A little more than a century later, another ecclesial luminary, Pope John Paul II presented Our Lady as the ideal companion for our Advent journey:

May the Virgin Mary help us to open the doors of our hearts to Christ, Redeemer of man and of history; may she teach us to be humble, because God looks upon the lowly; may she enable us to grow in understanding the value of prayer, of inner silence, of listening to God’s Word; may she spur us to seek God’s will deeply and sincerely, even when this upsets our plans; may she encourage us while we wait for the Lord, sharing our time and energies with those in need.

Mother of God, Virgin of expectation, grant that the God-who-comes will find us ready to receive the abundance of his mercy.

May Mary Most Holy, “Woman of the Eucharist” and Virgin of Advent, prepare us all to joyfully welcome Christ’s coming and to celebrate worthily his sacramental presence in the mystery of the Eucharist.

The sainted Pope’s final plea leads us to the Holy Eucharist–the extension in time of the mystery of the Incarnation–one miracle leading to another.

And so, it is not out of order to expect during this sacred time answers to heartfelt and sincere prayers (surely, much lesser “miracles” than either the Incarnation or the Eucharist), which intuition gave rise to the beautiful and powerful Christmas novena, which surely gives greater promise of fulfillment for holy desires than putting them on Santa’s list:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment
At which the Son of God was born
Of a most pure Virgin
In a stable at midnight in Bethlehem
In the piercing cold.
At that hour, vouchsafe, I beseech Thee,
To hear my prayers and grant my desires.