MISSÆ DE S. MARIA IN SABBATO (TEMPORE ADVENTUS) - Our Lady's Spiritual Riches

PRESENTATION: The Prophecy of Emmanuel

The beautiful-sounding passage from the Prophet Isaiah, which forms the Epistle of today’s Mass, is one that most Catholics could probably recite by heart. It forms the centre of the Advent message, “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.” A name which means ‘God with us’.

What we are likely less familiar with is the context of the passage, something which adds extra depth to this prophecy.

In 734 B.C., the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel and Damascus were seeking to force the southern Jewish kingdom of Juda into an alliance against Assyria. To have a more pliable instrument at the helm of Juda, they plotted to replace King Achaz (who was the rightful king of all of Israel and the direct descendent of King David) with their own choice.

In the face of this pressure, Achaz was assured by the prophet Isaiah that all would go well, provided that the King of Juda spurned the human assistance of Assyria against Israel and Damascus and placed his entire trust in God. Then Isaiah foretold the collapse of the Israel-Damascus alliance. To help the king’s faith, Isaiah offered him a sign, a miracle, as proof that he spoke in God’s name.

However, the prophecy contains a subtle message that we might miss; when Achaz is told, “He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good,” this is not the food of the wealthy, it is the food of the poor. Recall that honey was one of the staples of St. John the Baptist's diet.

It is a challenge to the belief that the Messianic promise would bring great temporal wealth and prosperity. The sign is not merely a Virgin Birth but a Virgin Birth in poverty.

Of course, the foretold Messiah would later remind His followers that Spiritual wealth was of far greater importance and that material wealth can be a stumbling block. In fact, it is the material poverty of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother that protected their spiritual riches.

EXPLANATION: The poverty and riches of Our Lady

Of all of God’s creatures, none possess greater riches than Our Lady. Just two days ago, we celebrated her Immaculate Conception, when from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved from all stain of sin.

In the Gospel passage we just heard, the Angel Gabriel proclaims her “full of grace,” in other words, possessing the fullness of all graces and virtues. She was chosen by God to be not just the mother of the Saviour and promised Messiah but to be the very mother of God. Nevertheless, materially she lived a poor life, but it was this poverty that protected her spiritual wealth.

She did not live in the palaces of kings, where the great announcement of her virginal conception would be known and proclaimed, making her revered and famous.

When it came time for her to deliver her child, it did not take place in a home surrounded by family, nor even in an inn where witnesses could be present to the miraculous event of Christ coming forth as a ray of light through glass. No, she was in a manger, surrounded by simple beasts of the field.

Those who came to adore the newborn Christ and His mother were not the wealthy and important but poor shepherds, and while three kings did come, they were foreigners who returned to their own country in secret, without relating to the people of Israel what they had witnessed.

It was Our Lady’s material poverty that belied her true spiritual wealth.

IMPLICATION: Imitating Our Lady’s wealth

When Our Lord chose to come among us, He did not come when Israel was at the height of its wealth and power, nor did He come even when the descendants of David still lived in royal palaces. He chose to come when Israel was a conquered nation, and the descendants of David were reduced to living in poverty.

By coming at that time, He was able to show by word and example that true wealth is our spiritual treasure, not material good. Likewise, Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, lived a life of poverty, protecting her spiritual wealth.

If we want to be truly wealthy, then we should seek to imitate Our Lady in all things, especially in her poverty.

As St. Alphonsus Liguori writes in his book The Glories of Mary:

The Glories of Mary Section VII: Of the Poverty of Mary

He who loves riches, said St. Philip Neri, will never become a saint; and St. Theresa also said: It justly follows that he who goes in search of things lost is also lost. On the other hand, the same saint said, that this virtue of poverty is a good that comprises all other goods. I have said the virtue of poverty which, according to St. Bernard, does not consist alone in being poor, but in loving poverty: “Non paupertas, sed amor paupertatis virtus est.” Therefore Jesus Christ has said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”† Blessed, because they who wish for nothing but God, in God find every good, and find in poverty their paradise on earth, as St. Francis found it in saying: My God and my all: “Deus meus et omnia.” Let us, then, according to the exhortation of St. Augustine, love that only good in which is every good: “Ama unum bonum, in quo sunt omnia bona.” And let us pray our Lord with St. Ignatius: Give me only thy love together with thy grace, and I am rich enough.* And when poverty afflicts us, let us console ourselves by the thought that Jesus and his mother have also been poor like us.†

In a few moments, Our Lord will once again come to us in Holy Communion, and when He does, let us pray that, like Our Lady, we may desire only His grace and His love, the truest riches.