4th Sunday of Advent B
CMOQ Live-streamed & TV Broadcast
23. XII. 2023
I. A Tale of Two Cathedrals
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is one of the few dioceses blessed with two, cathedrals: Mary Our Queen and the Basilica of the Assumption.
Our co-cathedral is “America’s First Cathedral”, begun in 1806 and designed in a neo-classical style by Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen was designed by the firm of McGinnis and Walsh and dedicated on the eve of the Second Vatican Council.
Like a forecast in stone of the principal themes of the Council, its windows tell the story of our salvation in Christ Jesus, while highlighting the unique role of Mary Our Queen, in God’s redemptive plan.
Both cathedrals, while very different from one another, are masterpieces. Both are fitting dwelling places for God and for the celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy and the Sacraments. They stand as places of beauty that reflect the generosity of God’s People. But their deepest beauty is that they serve the purposes of the Divine Architect who seeks to enfold us into his mysterious plan for the salvation of the world.
II. David Seeks to Build a Temple
The desire to build fitting dwelling places for God runs deep in salvation history. In today’s first reading, King David sets his sights on building a temple for the Lord. At the time, David was, at the saying goes, ‘sitting on top of the world.’ He had defeated his enemies. His nation was safe, peaceful, and prosperous. David himself lived in a fine palace with his every need attended to, while the Ark of God dwelt in a tent. Why not build a grander place in which to house the Ark of the Covenant? Why not build a dwelling place for God on earth and a place for his people to worship?
Powerful as he was, David soon learned that God was the architect, not himself. For, in his mysterious and infinite wisdom, God had a better plan in mind. It was David’s son, Solomon, would indeed build a temple for the Lord, but what the Divine Master-Architect wanted to establish for David was a house, a kingdom, from which the Messiah and Savior would descend. It was as if God wanted to cement the foundation for the temple Solomon would build by establishing the House of David as an everlasting kingdom. The Architect Divine! How mysterious his ways! How inscrutable his design!
III. God’s Design Unfolds in Mary
In today’s Gospel, we see how the plans of the Divine Architect unfold. See how the Angel comes ‘to the Virgin Mary betrothed to a man name Joseph of the House of David. The Angel announces to the Virgin of Nazareth that she will conceive and bear by the power of the Holy Spirit and give to him the name, Jesus, a name which means in Hebrew, “God saves”. The Angel Gabriel goes on to say, “. . .the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Through the Angel, the Divine Architect announced his plans to complete the construction of the House of David by arranging for his Eternal Son to descend, humanly speaking, from David’s line.
Notice that the execution of God’s mysterious plan depended neither on builders, nor bankers, nor lawyers—my apologies to any who are here! –
. . . but on a young woman named Mary in a humble town tucked away in a distant outpost of the Roman Empire. It all hinged on Mary’s consenting to what God the Father asked of her.
As we listen to the exchange between the Angel and Mary, we anxiously await to hear Mary say, “May it be done to me according to your Word” –
For with those simple words of humble, obedient faith, Mary conceived the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. In that moment, she became a tabernacle, a dwelling place of God’s Son. Through Mary, “the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us” (John 1:14). That is why, in her Litany, we address Mary as “the Ark of the Covenant” even as a 7th century hymn addresses Mary as “[The] Mother blest! the chosen shrine //
Wherein the architect divine // Whose hand contains the earth and sky // Vouchsafed in hidden guide to lie.”
Thus did the Architect Divine build the house, not only for David but for us!
IV. Christ in Us, Our Hope of Glory
Pope Benedict XVI once said that, “. . .though it is God who always takes the initiative in coming to dwell in the midst of humanity, and he is always the main architect of this plan – it is also true that he does not will to carry it out without our active cooperation.”
Basic to God’s plan is that you and I should be temples of the Holy Spirit in which the Word made Flesh and his heavenly Father would dwell.
Or, as we read in the First Letter of St. Peter, we are to let ourselves be built “like living stones . . . into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet 2:5). Our cathedrals and parish churches which make up the Archdiocese,
and our individual hearts accord with God’s holy will, not by the putative grandeur of our accomplishments, but rather by our humbly welcoming the Word made flesh, like the unpretentious stable on that cold winter’s night so long ago. In our humble prayer and in our charity to those around us,
let us actively cooperate with the Architect Divine.
This reflection appropriately concludes with the prayer of Father Jean Jacques Olier, who, in the 17th century founded of the Society of Saint Sulpice,
the priests who direct Saint Mary’s Seminary here in Baltimore.
His prayer sums up what we should ask God for in these final hours of Advent: “O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in your servants: in the spirit of holiness, in the fullness of your power, in the perfection of your ways, in the truth of your virtues, in the communion of your mysteries. Rule over every adverse power, in your Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.”