Pope highlights Mary’s example as the "Woman of Advent"
VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) – Advent is a season of waiting and a time to ask ourselves what we are hoping for, what our hearts are longing for, Pope Benedict said on 28 November before praying the midday Angelus in St Peter’s Square.
The Pope noted the beginning of Advent, the season that looks both “to the first coming of the Son of God, when He was born of the Virgin Mary, and to His glorious return, when He will come to judge the living and the dead.”
The Pontiff proposed a reflection on this theme of “waiting,” noting that “it involves a profoundly human reality in which the faith becomes, so to say, completely one with our flesh and our heart.”
“Our whole personal, familial and social existence passes through this dimension of waiting,” he noted. “Waiting is something that is present in a 1,000 situations, from the smallest and most banal to the most important, which draw us in completely and in the deepest way.”
For example, the Holy Father said, “we think of a husband and wife waiting for a child; of waiting for a relative or friend who is coming from far away to visit us; we think of a young person waiting to know his grade on a major exam or the outcome of a job interview; in romantic relationships, of waiting to meet the beloved person, of waiting for a letter, or of receiving forgiveness. One could say that man is alive so long as he waits, so long as hope is alive in his heart,” he affirmed.
“Everyone of us, therefore, especially in this season in which we prepare for Christmas, can ask himself: What am I waiting for?
“For what, in this moment of my life, does my heart long? And this same question can be posed at the level of the family, of the community, of the nation.
“What are we waiting for, together? What unifies our aspirations, what do they have in common?”
Pointing to the example of Mary, the Pope acknowledged that “in her heart the longing for the Saviour was so great, her faith and hope were so ardent, that He was able to find in her a worthy mother.”
“After all, God Himself had prepared her before all time.
“There is a mysterious correspondence between the waiting for God and the waiting for Mary,” the Pope said, “the creature ‘full of grace,’ totally transparent to the plan of love of the Most High.”
“Let us learn from her, the woman of Advent, to live with a new spirit in our daily gestures, with the sentiment of a profound expectation that only the coming of God can fulfill.”