God Is Preparing a Place

On this Advent season, we are exhorted to make preparations for the coming of the Messiah: for His second coming at the end of time (or at the end of our time here on earth, meaning our death), as well as for the commemoration of His first coming, on Christmas Day. We are given many suggestions for spiritual preparations, which we are supposed to undertake amidst the material preparations, like putting up Xmas lights and Xmas trees, buying gifts, booking tickets for Xmas break etc.

As we make all these Advent preparations, we celebrate the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a feast specially celebrated in many parishes and chapels all over the country. The opening prayer for today's Mass says: "Father, you prepared the Virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of your Son. You let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his death, and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Help us by her prayers to live in your presence without sin. We ask this..."

This opening prayer reminds us how God Himself prepared the way, the place for the coming of His Son, the Redeemer. It is not the world that prepared itself or a way or a place for Christ. It is God who made the necessary preparations in the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that Christ may find a fitting dwelling place when he comes to the earth.

Perhaps God does the same in our hearts. In the end, it is not we who will ultimately prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ, whether this Xmas or at the end of time. It is God who prepares a place... but we have to open our hearts and let Him come in so that He may undertake the cleansing, the healing, the washing, the purifying of our hearts, as He did to Mary.