ADVENT reveals two great figures standing at the door where the King of Glory shall knock:

 

The Ever-Virgin Mary, Immaculate Conception and mother of the King

 

and

 

John the Baptist, the King’s fearless and

uncompromising preacher.

 

Whether by the shy invitation of a young girl or the thunderous summons of the ancient voice, their message to us is the same

 

Real life is born in pain of maintained through prayer, poverty, penance and faith.

 

We light a candle for Life, in all of its diversity until in the fullness of The Author of life returns.

 

On the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1858, St. Bernadette Soubirous rose before dawn and answered the mysterious interior call to return to the grotto at Massabielle (Lourdes, France):

 

I went every day for a fortnight and each day I asked her who she was—and this petition always made her smile. After the fortnight I asked her three times consecutively. She always smiled. At last I tried for the fourth time. She stopped smiling. With her arms down, she raised her eyes to heaven and then, folding her hands over her breast she said,

 

Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou.

 

[Repeating to herself these unfamiliar words in her native Bigourdan dialect by which the damiezelo, or little lady, revealed herself to St. Bernadette: I am Immaculate Conception.]

 

Blessed Mary is not making a statement about her giving birth to Our Lord and Savior when she was a virgin, but rather about her own sinless conception in the womb of her mother, St. Anne.  Priests and people are often confused on this point because in 1954 His Holiness Pope Pius IX chose to declare de fide the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on the very feast day of The Annunciation:

 

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

 

More pressing questions to consider are why did Blessed Mary, purest of virgins, choose a pig-sty like Massabielle in which to wed Heaven to earth, and why did Heaven choose a little girl living in obscure poverty with her family to convey such a

revelation? Why did Heaven choose Mary to give birth to the Son of God in a stable surrounded by the stench of livestock? One sure biblical principle answers:

 

Everything is possible for him who believes.

(Mark 9:23)

 

Where faith exists, Heaven visits and miracles follow. You may pray in a Cathedral, you may

live in a mansion, you may cruise the Riviera in a yacht, but if you have not faith, you are nothing and

nothing will come of it:

 

Jesus did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. (Matthew 13:58)

 

The Blessed Mother came to Massabielle because Bernadette was there, watching in prayer, her heart

filled with the wonder and praise—the charisma of the innocent and poor in spirit.

 

Many of us were poor, but we never knew it, believing rightly that we were rich and blessed

beyond measure, being surrounded by the loving, loyal hearts of our family. That was St. Bernadette’s

reality, until notoriety came and threatened to cheapen and commercialize her gift from above. Of

course she rejected every offer saying, I want to remain poor. This is poverty of spirit that comes to

those who are born again:

 

Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God

unless he is born again…Flesh give birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit’. (John 3:3,6) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…Blessed are the pure in heart, for

they will see God. (Matthew 5:3,8)

 

Saint Juan Diego referred to himself a Cuauhtlatoatzin when speaking to Blessed Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Here is the translation:

 

I am a nobody; I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf.

 

Our Lady, in turn, called him Juanito:

 

Juan Dieguito, the most humble of my sons, my son the least, my little dear.

 

During his homily in Mexico City on the occasion of the canonization of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Pope Saint John Paul II said:

 

What was Juan Diego like? Why did God look upon him? The Book of Sirach, as we have heard, teaches us that ‘God alone is mighty; he is glorified by the humble’ (cf. Sirach 3:20).

 

Quoting Saint Paul, His Holiness shed light on the divine way of bringing about salvation:

 

God chose what is low and despised in the world…so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:28,29)

 

Our Church leaders were skeptical of Saint Bernadette and Saint Juan and questioned the truth of their words. Skepticism and rejection never deterred them in their vocations, nor did they become bitter towards the Church that had become so narrow, so stingy towards God that it forbade God to speak outside of its own precincts.  Saint Bernadette dug the very foundations of the future basilica we know today with her own hands. Saint Juan walked fifteen miles to attend Mass…every day! See how God uses the lowly to confound the comfortable, how He employs the poor in spirit and pure of heart to lead His Church and His people through penance and humility to faith

 

My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked upon His handmaid’s lowliness…He has shown might with His arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.

(Luke 1:47,48,51-2)

 

Through the Passion of Jesus Christ, by the pierced and wounded heart of Blessed Mary, by the martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist’s final witness to the Truth, by the innocence and purity of a little Saint Bernadette in Massabielle, by the humility of a poor Aztec Saint Juan Diego, Heaven proclaims the greatness of God and the awesome dignity accorded the human race to be caught up into the life of God:

 

God’s greatest handiwork, the Incarnation—God dwelling in Human Flesh.  AMEN.