Advent 4 (Luke 1:39-45) Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

All grace flows through Mary.

All grace flows from God. Mary is the conduit of grace. She is the mother of God incarnate, Jesus, who is the grace of God.

In Mary God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit to facilitate the unification of humanity with divinity in God the Son.

After centuries of preparation, Israel brought forth a single woman who the archangel Gabriel recognized was full of grace. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. It is God’s universal gift to all people of all time. It is an unconditional gift. Yet, few people choose to receive the gift. Some of us ignore it. Some of us reject it. And some of us are indifferent.

The call to repentance is the call to receive God’s unmerited favor.

The call to preparation is the call to walk in God’s unmerited favor.

The call to worship is the call to be immersed in God’s unmerited favor.

By her own choice Mary lived in the center of divine love. By God’s sovereign grace, Mary became the center of divine love. She is the holy mother of God, the Hagios Theotokos, who says “yes” to God.

For nine months she bore the incarnate co-eternal Son. She became the Temple of the Beloved of the Father. She offered her mind, heart and will to God with the words of surrender: Let it be. Let it be according to Thy will. Let God be God. Let His will be sovereign. Let his love shine forth into the universe, this planet and my body and soul.

This surrender of love in love and with love forms who Mary is.

She is, as her cousin Elizabeth stated: blessed among women. She is unique as the Theotokos, the holy mother of God.  She is representative of God’s chosen people, Israel. As God chose Israel to be the instrumentality of His plan of salvation so God chose Mary to accomplish that call.

Of all the people of her time and all time, Mary knew that God just doesn’t have love, God is love. Mary knew she had not been called in power to power, in pride to pride, by self-will to self-will. Mary knew she had been called from a people, a tribe and a family who had been called. She knew by faith she had been called in grace for love.

Mary was the first to experience the new life God gives in Jesus Christ. That new life is union with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Mary walked in the new way of living. It is the way of joy, sorrow, glory and Light.

Mary knew and experienced the Real Presence of Divine love and holiness in Jesus Christ. For thirty years the Holy Spirit prepared Jesus through Moses, the Prophets and Mary for his brief but intense public ministry.

Moses issues the call to worship through the Law. The prophets repeat the call to worship in the invitation to repentance and preparation. Mary lives the call to worship as she becomes the Theotokos.

Mary is always the Holy Mother. She nurtures, teaches, preserves and protects by grace through faith in Love. As she helped Jesus through infancy, childhood, and adolescence to adulthood so she helps us. She is the universal mother of grace channeling the universal unconditional love of God in Jesus Christ to every human being on earth.

In her humility she embraced the new life and entered into the new way of living. The new way of living is the immersion of the soul in the infinite and eternal love of the Holy Trinity. St. Elizabeth recognized this and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit proclaimed to Mary and to all people about Mary: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.