The Blessed Mother and Advent Part 4: Holy Mary and the Death of Sin

by Carl E. Olson

The final words of the Hail Mary are filled with comfort, but also with a reminder of our mortality and the inevitable end to our earthly lives: "Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen."

This cry to the Blessed Mother might seem distant from–if not at odds with–the season Advent and the rapidly approaching season of Christmas. What does Advent have to do with sin? What does Christmas have to do with death?

Quite a bit, actually. In fact, it is difficult to appreciate Advent and Christmas without squarely facing the dark realities of sin, death, and human failing. After all, God became man in order to destroy the power of sin. The eternal Word took on flesh and dwelt among us in order to conquer death. The perfect Son became a slave so that sinful slaves might become perfected, adopted sons.

The Gift of Knowledge

"But," it might be objected, "what does Mary really know about sin and death? Didn't she escape both?" It's true that because she was immaculately conceived–a gift of God's grace–Mary was saved from sin. But because she is full of grace and in perfect union with her Son, Mary is able to see with utter clarity the human condition and the effect sin has had on the world and on mankind.

She truly rejoiced in God her Savior (Lk 1:47) because she knew what sin was, even while she remained untouched by its stain. And she stood at the foot of the Cross and experienced the heart-wrenching pain of seeing her Son and Savior die a death due to the sins of the world (cf. Lk 2:35).

So it fitting and comforting that the mother of the Son of God prays for her sons and daughters at the hour of their deaths. The Mother of God, from whose faith and body the Redeemer was born, prays that men and women will have the faith to become true children of God, born of the Spirit. The Woman, who experienced the death of her Son, prays that they will die to themselves so that they will live to Christ (cf. Gal 2:20).

Some theologians have suggested that the Immaculate Conception was a doctrine meant to awaken the modern world to the fact that human perfection and salvation cannot come from technology, science, or ideology, but only by God's initiative, mercy, and grace. Modern man denies that he is a sinner in need of salvation. Contrast that to Paul, who exclaims that "it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all" (1Tim. 1:15).

The true disciple of Jesus Christ must admit his need and his inability to save himself. He is then invited to become a son of God by grace and through divine adoption. This is the incredible reality of deification–man sharing in the freely offered life of God. In the words of St. Hilary of Poitiers, "Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God" (CCC 537).

As today's Gospel reading states, Jesus is Emmanuel–"God is with us"–making it possible for man to be with God and have intimate communion with Him. And so the promise of Advent culminates in the fulfillment of Christmas.

The Logic of the Assumption

What about the Assumption, the belief that Mary, at the end of her life, was taken up to heaven: How can Mary relate to those whose bodies will become corrupt in the grave? This doctrine has ancient roots in the Church's Tradition, but many find it puzzling, or even needless.

But the Assumption, seen in the grand picture of salvation history, is a matter of divine logic. Since Mary was sinless and since she bore the perfect Incarnate Son of God, it follows that her body–the tabernacle that bore the God-man–would not suffer the corruption due to sin. She would instead be glorified, just as all those who are filled with grace and who have "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 13:14) will be one day be glorified.

As theologian John Saward explains, "The Assumption is an application of the Lord's teaching when he raised Lazarus: 'I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die' (Jn 11:25f.). No one lives more truly in Jesus than Mary: he is flesh of her flesh. No one believes in him with greater devotion: 'Blessed is she who believed' (Lk 1:45). Thus the Theotokos is not detained by death and passes into glory." Mary is all about her Son and is always going about His business.

In his encyclical Redemptoris Mater Pope John Paul II explained a clear, beautiful truth about the Assumption: "By the mystery of the Assumption into heaven there were definitely accomplished in Mary all the effects of the one mediation of Christ the Redeemer of the world and risen Lord." And here is the glorious, joyous truth of Advent: "If as Virgin and Mother she is singularly united with him in his first coming, so through her continued collaboration with him she will also be united with him in expectation of the second" (RM 41).

Mary has experienced every joy and pain imaginable. She clasped in wonder the newborn Christ in her weary arms. She held in sorrow the bloody body of that same Son, grown and violently killed. She stands in heaven and patiently waits for her sons and daughters to come home.

Rejoicing in Salvation

The Evangelist Matthew summarizes the message of Christmas when he writes, in the first chapter: "For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." The Lord has come, is coming, and will come again. Advent anticipates, Christmas culminates, and man rejoices: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased" (Lk 2:14).