Christmas Countdown, Part 3

Yesterday’s Advent "O” Antiphon was “O Root of Jesse” and today’s is “O Key of David”. As you can see, these are Old Testament designations of the Messiah, the Anointed of God.

Fr. Camillus Janas, OFM and Fr. Michael Surufka, OFM praying and anointing infirm parishioners at St. Stanislaus Parish, Cleveland, OH

From early times the Christian community has understood Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ (Messiah) and Lord whom God sent for our salvation (see Acts 2:36).

Over and over again in the Gospels, especially Matthew and Luke, we have references to the prophets of Israel being fulfilled in the person, life, ministry and paschal mystery of Jesus Christ.

We profess in the Nicene Creed every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God . . . On the third day he arose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures . . .”

Today’s Gospel, though, focuses on Mary’s call – her vocation – to be the Theotokos (the one who bears God, from the Third Ecumenical Council, at Ephesus in AD 431). This is her unique role, her unique ministry in the history of the human race. No one before or since has been called to be Theotokos!

The First Reading today is from Isaiah 7:10-14, in which the Prophet is instructed by the LORD to speak to King Ahaz of Judea to seek a sign from the Most High. The king balks, and the LORD reprimands him. He then provides a sign – a young woman (in Greek, virgin) will conceive and give birth to a son, who shall be named Immanuel (God is with us; literally, “with us is God” in Hebrew).

An ancient Christian icon of Mary as Mother of God (Theotokos) is Our Lady of the Sign, in which Immanuel is shown in her womb.

Greek Icon of Our Lady of the Sign

St. Francis of Assisi called upon all believers to practice penance and produce worthy fruits of penance; that is, to live holy lives in accordance with the Scriptures and the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He teaches us Franciscan friars, all members of the Franciscan family (religious and lay people alike),

“Oh, how happy and blessed are these men and women when the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon them (cf. Isa. 11:2) and He will make His home and dwelling among them (cf. Jn. 14:23). They are children of the heavenly Father (cf. Mat 5:45) whose works they do, and they are spouses, brothers, sisters, and mother of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Mat 12:40) . . . [We are] mothers when we carry Him in our heart and body (cf. 1 Cor. 6:20) through divine love and pure and sincere conscience and [when] we give birth to Him through [His] holy manner of working, which should shine before others as an example (cf. Mat. 5:16).” (First Version of the Letter to the Faithful, 5-7, 10)

Such is the Christian vocation and the Franciscan vocation. In our Assumption BVM Province, way back in 1987 (20 years ago!), we drew up a Mission Statement, part of which reads, “Our mission in the Church is to make visible the presence of Christ in the world.”

Bro. Andrew Brophy, OFM, serving God's People at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Greenwood, MS

While Mary’s vocation as Theotokos was certainly singular, we are no less called by God through our Savior Jesus Christ to “bear God” in our world. And we make him visible through holy lives, as St. Francis exhorted and St. Clare of Assisi affirmed.

What are some ways that God is calling you (and me!) to “give birth” to Jesus Christ realistically in our world today? What are the penances and the fruits of penance in which the presence of the Lord Jesus is made visible in and through our lives?

O Root of Jesse, you stand for ensign of humankind; before you rulers shall keep silence, and to you all nations have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay!

O Key of David and Scepter of the House of Israel: you open and no one closes; you close an no one opens. Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death!

Immaculate Conception Often Misunderstood

Mary, the Immaculate Conception

As a Catholic priest I have been surprised by the number of Catholics who seem unaware of what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is all about.

Many seem to think that it refers to Mary’s conception of Jesus, but that is celebrated on March 25th, the Annunciation of the Lord to Mary.

As a Franciscan friar, I am delighted to celebrate this solemnity, together with all the members of the Franciscan family, because she is the patroness of the Order of Friars Minor!

The Eastern Churches call this the Feast of the Conception of St. Anne, referring to the mother of Mary (traditionally called St. Ann) conceiving Mary in her womb. The Eastern Christian approach seems a bit clearer in so far as we are referring to Mary being immaculately conceived in the womb of St. Anne. Nevertheless, the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception is about Mary being conceived without original sin.

The English were already celebrating this festival in the 12th century. The Franciscans of the Middle Ages took up this teaching and the Franciscan friar and priest Blessed John Duns Scotus, a brilliant theologian at the end of the 13th century, gave sound underpinning to the teaching of the Immaculate Conception.

He emphasized God’s goodness and love for us by sending us Jesus by teaching that God preserved Mary to be the Mother of God from the very beginning of her life, at her conception, from all sin. Hence, Mary is conceived without original sin, unlike the rest of humanity, so that she could bear God Incarnate in her womb.

Blessed John Duns Scouts, OFM (ca. 1265-1308)

Not only that, because Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world, and God is not bound by time and space like his creatures are, the merits of Jesus’ obedience on the Cross and the salvation he won for the human race, were pre-eminently given to her prior to the events, so that she could fulfill her singular vocation as Mother of God.



This teaching was not universally accepted and many prominent Medieval theologians disagreed. However, the Franciscan school persisted, believing that this was a very positive approach to God’s Providence and salvation history.

While not a Franciscan novelty and believed in by many for ages, the teaching of Mary’s Immaculate Conception gained greater and greater acceptance over time because it
was understood to magnify the truth of the Incarnation as professed in the Creed. (Some feared that it would super-exalt
Mary as a kind of deity; that was not the intention).


Finally, in 1854, Pope Pius IX declared Mary’s Conception in the womb of St. Anne to be Immaculate and to be henceforth considered an infallible dogma of the Church.

Of course, this became widely popular after the apparitions of the Mother of God at Lourdes, France, to the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous (later canonized a Saint), when “the Lady” (Mary) declared to the youthful Bernadette in her Pyrenean dialect that she was, in fact, the Immaculate Conception! (The Lourdes Hymn, Immaculate Mary, celebrates Mary's Immaculate Conception.)

The Catholic bishops of the USA declared Mary as immaculately conceived to be the patroness of the nation already in 1846. Hence, it is celebrated almost always as a Holy Day of Obligation in our country, like tomorrow!

What a wonderful festival to keep! God is faithful to his promises, even from the beginning until now. He promised us a Savior, and he delivered, through the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Having preserved her from original sin, God has crushed the power of the enemy through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and has defeated the ancient curse against us. We are no longer cursed – we are blessed!