The Blessed Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. Icons of Advent. Icons of Vocation
“Magnificat anima mea Dominum”
“My soul magnifies the Lord”
by Rev. Tony Gonoude, PP
In Advent we await the presence of Mary’s Unborn Child with the star of Bethlehem in the distance calling us to go to the place of the Christ Child. On this way to Bethlehem, we have two lights to guide us. Both are true examples of answering yes to God. Both are vocations that bring Christ to the world. We are speaking about Mary, the Mother of Jesus and his cousin John. One who opens the world to the miracle of Christ in the flesh and the other who will be a voice for him until his Word teaches and speaks.
First there is Mary.
This young woman, full of grace, will become the dwelling place for God in history and time. (cf. Lk 1:27-28). Advent is when we contemplate the presence of the Child who visits us with God’s favour. The Annunciation is a real Advent because in the ascent of Mary to her calling, the Lord will visit his people. Every vocation is asked to be another Advent. Another moment, when in allowing God’s will be done in us and letting ourselves go forward to the altar in Priesthood, we will bring the Lord in the Advent moment of every Mass, where God’s presence will become a reality. In giving ourselves to the Lord who comes to us, we will see his favour and know his love for us and others. Mary is hailed as full of grace. So it is with the call for us, God address us and asks us to allow his Son to take flesh now through the Sacred Priesthood. Like Mary may we open the world to Him.
When the Angel visits that little room of Nazareth, the world ignored this moment that would define all human history. Mary becomes the Mother of God, unnoticed. So it is for every yes to God. In the room of our answer to the Lord’s calling, there is that moment that seems to tell you that becoming a priest is insignificant and that advertisements, social media, money, possessions and position are all more important and will be heard in the distractions of today. My life will only have meaning on this path, we may think. However, in the dwelling of Mary that becomes open to the Lord, there is great peace and joy. From this place that time seemed to pass by, there is a ripple that went out and still goes out. This tells us that even in being small and insignificant; the call of Mary has meaning, purpose and the power to change the world. The Child given to her will draw the wise ones and the shepherds (cf. Lk 2: 8-19; Mt 21-12). Through the priest he continues to draw people of faith down the ages.
Mary heard the call but often in this hustle-filled hour of history we do not. The angel may wish to speak to our hearts and ask us to become another Christ but we can fail to listen. This encounter with Mary and the angel teaches us the need to be open to the promptings of God for us. We find this in the silence of that Nazareth room where there were no other distractions to stop the Blessed Mother from hearing what God wished for her. We are surrounded by noise, the need to occupy ourselves and to fill our time. The young woman of Nazareth teaches us to hear what the Lord wishes for us. Notice in the silence she listens to the angel fully and knows what the divine plan is. We hear in the Prophet Isaiah of watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem (cf. Is 62:6). Advent asks us to look for the Lord’s presence and will for us. The Holy Mother teaches us to be as watchmen for God in the silent room of prayer, so that we can come to know the Lord and his plan for us. This will see us follow our call instead of it being drowned out by worldly distractions.
Mary becomes the Mother of Jesus as we see but we can be forgiven for thinking that she somehow becomes a distant figure out of reach and somehow almost imprisoned by her responsibility. This is not the case at all. Mary will go in joy to her cousin Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:39-56). She will proclaim the joy and consolation of the God whose light shone on the shepherds and the Magi (cf. Lk 2:8-19; Mt 2: 1-12). Mary becomes the mother of the Child whose light fills the Temple (cf. Lk 2:22-39) and even in suffering and desperation, will stand with him at the foot of the cross (cf. Jn 18: 18: 25-27) and guide the early Church with her memory of him as a point of comfort and consolation (cf. Acts 1:12-14). Far from being a remote and locked away figure the Blessed Mother is forever in the active in service of her Son. The Priesthood is not a remote office either. For those considering the call, there comes the worry that somehow when they enter studies for the Priesthood that they will become distant and not relatable. Far from this, those in college for the sacred ministry will make even more friends and find new worlds in their studies. In seminary the interests of the candidate become magnified as aspects of the person who will be ordained. Family remains, friends remain and the person who steps near the Lord becomes closer to many people. This nearness becomes even stronger after ordination where the priest will be a presence of Christ to so many situations of joy, sadness and become a minister of God’s consolation and reassurance.
A final point for reflection. We will see that the Baptist’s father was of the priestly line. His call came from the heights of the Temple and its majesty. Mary, on the other hand, is given God’s will for her in a simple room in an unnoticed dwelling. This tells us that this true Priest that she will carry is the High one of God who will remove his garments of glory to dress us in his humility and mercy (cf. Jn 13: 1-15). What our call brings is the majesty of the Priesthood with its vesture, symbolism and the awesome reality that that those ordained speak with the “I” and “My” of Jesus Christ. Yet with this great office we are called to be as the Blessed Mother who is so humble to put her Son first with the instruction, “ Do whatever he tells you” ( cf. Jn 2:5).
Then there is John.
The Child of Mary, while carried in her womb in a place unknown, will firstly be known by the unborn John the Baptist (cf. Lk 1: 39-55). He knows Jesus and sees him as the one who saves (cf. Jn 1:29). This is the mission of the Lord as told to St Joseph, his name is the one that saves us from our sins (cf. Mt 1:22). The son of Zechariah knew this because he was attuned to the call of God and the presence of the Lord in his life. In this way every day was an Advent where he knew the holy saving power of the Christ who comes to save us. John lived his vocation knowing Jesus and so he could bring this knowledge to others. His call and calling to those who listened to his preaching was authentic because of this. If you feel that the Lord is asking you to be a voice for him, then you must come to know him. Only those who know Jesus in their joys, their sorrow and their needs of each day can bring him to others. Real witnesses tell of what they have looked at. So it is for the priest. He must become a friend of the Lamb who saves. This knowing comes from prayer, from reading and from coming to love Christ in his Church. This comes from loving the beauty of the Holy Mass and from seeing the Lord as the only way to true joy. If you know the Lord, then your words will have his meaning and you will be seen as a true voice for Christ the Word.
John the Baptist has the strength to challenge because he is true to his calling. Priesthood in this way is a cross too; what we preach is not our own but the message of the one who visits his people, in the Advent of his presence. The priestly office, while not there to lord it over others, is there to call people to see the God who saves. John cries out, “Prepare a way for the Lord. Make his paths straight” (Mt 3:3). Archbishop Oscar Romero called on us to be “God’s microphones.” He witnessed to Christ in the modern day to the shedding of his priestly blood. This is not the extreme that we are all called to but to speak of the Lord, as John did, is to challenge the modern culture of consumerism, of death, of placing the self first. Often many do not want to hear the message of prepare, of repenting; to turn their lives around to face the Lord in love, goodness, purity and truth. To be a voice for the Lord is to call out the world prepare but it is also to receive the joy and hope that comes with being true to Christ and to bring others to him, despite the rejection of the world and its values. To make up our own god in preaching will lead ourselves and others off the path to God. The Baptist teaches us to be true to the Lord and to bring others to him.
“Are you the one whom is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt 11:3). Despite his knowing Jesus, the Baptist enters into the confinement of doubt as he is imprisoned for his witness to the Lamb who is to save us. John had given so much to his preaching and calling people to repent. The One he had baptised (cf. Mk 1:9-11) had come into the world. The Advent of God was here and yet, in many ways, the new straight path (cf. Mt 3:3) to God that John had thought would happen, failed to materialise, in his eyes. From prison, John asks Jesus, are you really the God who has come? The Lord answers with the signs of his sacred presence (cf. Mt 11:4-6). John will become truly blessed in this moment of his questioning because he will see that despite the presence of the Lord, the world will not be somehow new as a path to the perfect. Jesus came to lost humanity to save it in so many ways. Often like the announcement of his conception to the Blessed Virgin, this is unnoticed but no less powerful. The true straight path for us is to become more like Christ. John is challenged by the words of the Lord “Blessed is he who does not lose faith in me.” (Mt 11:6). This is a lesson for every vocation. You may enter the Sacred Priesthood to somehow change the world and to reshape it in an image you have considered as to be a way to God. You may feel as one considering the call that to enter on this way is to be imprisoned in frustration and bewilderment because this office you will hold effects little change. Always remember that Christ will work through you in a multitude of ways; through his Sacraments, through prayer, through witness and through preaching his Word. In this way we must change our heart and know that in the Sacred Priesthood God will not impose but change with his light this darkened world in a myriad of ways. John will say “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). Advent, God’s visit and presence will happen in us and through us if we allow it. This is how we know Christ is truly the one sent.
We have said that Zechariah, the father of the Baptist is of the priestly line (cf. Lk 1:5). The priest of the old covenant receives the news that his son will be a miracle of God when he is at prayer. John’s whole life is orientated towards the Lord he serves. As we have seen, he knows him; even in the womb, he points him out, he baptises him and when he is in fear, he turns to him for reassurance. John asks us to prepare for Christ but he is truly in the Lord. He witnesses for him right up to his death. Like Jesus who resisted the temptation to be all-powerful in a worldly sense (cf. Lk 4: 1-13), the son of Zechariah will put Christ first. In every way, the Baptist is as a priest who serves God above all else. He takes the line of priests of the old covenant to the feet of Jesus who blesses him in his faith and says that there is no greater born (cf. Mt 11:11). From the line of priests, John the Baptist teaches us who consider the Sacred Priesthood to always put the Lord first, to love serving him and to know that in Jesus we will find true meaning and life. Like the father of the Baptist, we will find our call at prayer and in turning our lives towards the will of God for us.
A final point. The annunciation of John’s birth like that of Jesus is not noticed or seen by the world. However, this coming of the cousin who loves the Messiah above all else, points to the true Advent of God’s presence in the world. That which is small and not seen is where God works his most wonderful miracles.
Fr Tony Gonoude
Ordained in 2007, Fr Tony Gonoude is Parish Priest of Ballynacarrigy, Co. Westmeath and serves as Vocations Director for the Diocese of Meath.