May He descend from heaven

Friends in Christ, today in the scriptures, Isaiah and also David in the psalms, they cry out for the Savior to come down from heaven. ‘Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior, says the Psalmist. And Isaiah: ‘Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain, let the skies drop it down.’

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The coming of the Savior is alluded to, as a gentle rain that comes down, or a dewfall. But the Lord’s coming down from heaven required some preparation. The saints tell us that God, having decided to become man in order to redeem lost humanity, needed to choose a Mother. God therefore sought the world over for the maiden that was the most holy and humble. The Son of God was preparing to drop down like rain to a parched earth, but He needed a safe beginning point, a ‘beachhead’ as they say in a battle, as God comes to take back the earth.

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And so God, having admired the Virgin Mary for her virtues and simplicity declared: ‘This one is my dove, my perfect one,’ to quote the scriptures. In the Song of Songs, Mary is referred to. It says, ‘While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent up its sweet scent’ St. Antoninus explains this passage in the following way: Spikenard, he says, is used to produce a beautiful perfume, with an exquisite scent. It is a small and lowly plant. And so this little, humble plant is a symbol of Mary. Therefore, it was the sweet scent of Mary’s humility, which ascended to heaven and awakened the Divine Word, reposing in the bosom of the Eternal Father, and drew him down into his Mother’s womb.

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The Lord was drawn down from heaven as it were, by the sweet scent of the goodness of the virgin Mary, to become man and redeem a lost world.

We enter tomorrow the special days leading up to Christmas; it is a time of holiness, we wish to make it a time of peace. We ask that our prayers ascend to heaven with a sweet scent, to awaken the Divine Spouse, that he would shower us with many graces in the coming days.