Hail, favored one!

SUNDAY 8 DECEMBER (Lk 1,26-38)

The Virgin Mary is the first human creature in whom the Lord’s promise, made to the serpent in the garden of Eden after sin is fulfilled: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Gen 3,14-15). In the “Full of Grace” there was not a moment in which Satan set his foot to crush her, make her his own, and the moment after in which the Lord intervened powerfully to put an end to the rule of the ancient serpent. She was all of God from the first moment of her conception. There was not first the conception and a second after the liberation from the heavy legacy of the guilt of Eve and Adam, but in the same microsecond in which the conception took place, eternal enmity also took place. Conceived without sin and born without sin, she also grew up without sin. Full of grace from the beginning of her existence, she lived growing from grace to grace, from faith to faith and from charity to charity without interruption.

Why was this singular privilege granted to the Virgin Mary? Because the heavenly Father chose and called her to be the Mother of his Only Son through the work of the Holy Spirit. God acted as a divine armour so that not even the slightest sin entered her heart and stained her soul. We can apply first of all to her what is written in the Book of Wisdom: “But the just live forever, and in the Lord is their recompense, and the thought of them is with the Most High.Therefore shall they receive the splendid crown, the beauteous diadem, from the hand of the Lord – For he shall shelter them with his right hand, and protect them with his arm. He shall take his zeal for armor and he shall arm creation to requite the enemy; He shall don justice for a breastplate and shall wear sure judgment for a helmet; He shall take invincible rectitude as a shield and whet his sudden anger for a sword, And the universe shall war with him against the foolhardy. Well-aimed shafts of lightnings shall go forth and from the clouds as from a well-drawn bow shall leap to the mark; and as from his sling, wrathful hailstones shall be hurled. The water of the sea shall be enraged against them and the streams shall abruptly overflow; A mighty wind shall confront them and a tempest winnow them out; Thus lawlessness shall lay the whole earth waste and evildoing overturn the thrones of potentates (Wis 5,15-23). This happened to Satan every time he got close to the Full of Grace.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

The Virgin Mary is the work of God’s works. In her God revealed all the greatness of his wisdom, omniscience, grace, omnipotence, charity, holiness and light. The Lord spared himself in making her so beautiful, so holy and so perfect in nothing. Looking at her the Lord sees himself reflected like in a mirror. So great is the spiritual beauty of the Immaculate Virgin. Truly “the Almighty has done great things in her!”

Angels and Saints arrange that every day we fall in love with the beauty of our Mother.