The whole world awaits Mary's reply

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

Today, December 20th, as we celebrate the final days of Advent our Church invites us to first read and reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah (48: 1-11) entitled “God alone is Lord of the future”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a homily In Praise of the Virgin Mother by Saint Bernard, abbot.

The days at the end of Advent, from December 17 to Christmas, are designated by the Catholic Church to prepare for the celebration of Christmas. These days have special significance because they mark the beginning of the "O" Antiphons and the final days of Advent. These antiphons are a series of seven prayers, one for each day. They are sung during Evening Prayer, Vespers, or the Magnificat. The antiphons are based on Old Testament prophecies and use biblical imagery to proclaim the coming of Christ. The "O" Antiphons are the basis for the popular Advent hymn "O come, O come, Emmanuel".

Saint Bernard was born in 1090 near Dijon in France. After a religious upbringing, he joined the Cistercians in 1111 and later was chosen abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux in southeast France in an area known as Bar-sur-Aube. There he directed his companions in the practice of virtue by his own good example. In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, which soon became an ideal of Christian nobility. Both monastic rule and military manual, the Rule is a unique document and an important historical source.

He was centrally responsible for the early expansion of the Cistercian Order throughout Europe. Tens of thousands heard his powerful preaching, and he personally attracted and helped many hundreds of men to follow a call to monastic life. Because of schisms which had a risen in the Church, he traveled all about Europe restoring peace and unity. He wrote many theological and spiritual works. Bernard was canonized just 21 years after his death by Pope Alexander III. He died in 1153. In 1830 Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.

For St. Bernard, the greatness of Mary was rooted in her exalted status as the Mother of the Incarnate Word. He once said that if we realize whose Mother she is, we would understand that we “cannot admire her enough

Isaiah, one of the greatest of the prophets, appeared at a critical moment in Israel’s history. The Northern Kingdom collapsed, under the hammerlike blows of Assyria, in 722/721 B.C., and in 701 Jerusalem itself saw the army of Sennacherib drawn up before its walls. In the year that Uzziah, king of Judah, died, Isaiah received his call to the prophetic office in the Temple of Jerusalem. Close attention should be given to chapter six, where this divine summons to be the ambassador of the Most High is circumstantially described.

The vision of the Lord enthroned in glory stamps an indelible character on Isaiah’s ministry and provides a key to the understanding of his message. The majesty, holiness and glory of the Lord took possession of his spirit and, at the same time, he gained a new awareness of human pettiness and sinfulness. The enormous abyss between God’s sovereign holiness and human sinfulness overwhelmed the prophet. Only the purifying coal of the seraphim could cleanse his lips and prepare him for acceptance of the call: “Here I am, send me!”

The ministry of Isaiah extended from the death of Uzziah in 742 B.C. to Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C., and it may have continued even longer, until after the death of Hezekiah in 687 B.C. Later legend (the Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah) claims that Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, executed Isaiah by having him sawed in two. During this long ministry, the prophet returned again and again to the same themes, and there are indications that he may have sometimes re-edited his older prophecies to fit new occasions.