"ADVENTures" -Reflection Series of Rev. Fr. Bobby R. Titco for the Season of Advent (Reflections #8 and #9)

ADVENTures 8

Christmas is Jesus coming to us. The Eucharist is Jesus staying with us.

ADVENT IS NOT WAITING FOR JESUS AS IF HE ISN'T HERE YET. He is already here. Find Him. Recognize Him. Offer Him your gift, not gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but your heart.

YOUR HEART IS THE BEST MANGER FOR JESUS. Are you preparing it for Him?
When He was born, it is said that there was no more room in the inn. Should it now be said that there is also no more room for Him in your heart? No, don't give Him only a room in your heart. GIVE HIM YOUR WHOLE HEART. He deserves nothing less.

 **************************************************************************

ADVENTures 9

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head and you will strike His heel" (Gn 3:15). This is the first gospel, the proto-evangelium. Right after the fall came the promise of redemption.

WE KNOW WHO THAT WOMAN IS! Mary.

Advent started in the garden of Eden. The first Advent announcement was made there. And no less than God Himself who made it! Not any of the patriarchs or one of the prophets. Neither was it the angel Gabriel sent to the Blessed Virgin Mary. But God Himself.

Interestingly, God's Advent announcement made first reference to the woman and not the Son. This is logical because He intended His Son to be born of her and not to just fall from the sky. Thus the God-given importance of the woman. At the right time, God, through the angel Gabriel, revealed that that woman was Mary.

God was first to exalt Mary; we, therefore, do not go over board when we venerate her. He Himself loved her with a special and singular love; ought we not love her as much?

Advent began not only with Mary BUT IN MARY as well. The Word became flesh in her womb. She was preserved from any stain of sin from the moment of her conception in view of the Holy Incarnation of God's Son in her womb and at the service of the redemption of her race. Everything in Mary and about Mary is because of Jesus. Mariology is a function of Christology.

However, let it not be said that Mary herself was not redeemed. The fact that she did not sin highlights the actual divine intervention that preserved her from sin. While redemption for us is through reparation - for we have been damaged by sin and so Jesus repaired us, so to speak - Mary was redeemed through preservation. She alone was granted such a privilege. BUT SUCH A PRIVILEGE WAS FOR MISSION AND IS ORIENTED TO THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS, THE HUMAN RACE.

This Advent, let us resolve to stay closer to the Blessed Mother. Let us favor her as God favored her. Let us love her as Jesus, her Son, loves her. If the whole of our earthly life is our personal Advent, one that is intended for us to arrive at God and live with Him forever, we can never go wrong to devoutly spent it with Mary. She is the WOMAN OF ADVENT.