Wednesday, Third Week of Advent (Winter Ember Days)

Blessed Ember Wednesday!

The traditional Mass for Advent’s Ember Wednesday is also called the “Golden Mass”.
In medieval times, the first letters of this Mass were written in gold–
sometimes the entire Mass–and golden vestments were worn,
because the focus was on the golden mystery of our faith:
the Annunciation, when God first became Man in Mary’s womb.
The Golden Mass was held in early morning darkness,
lit by the golden glow of candlelight,
as we celebrated entrance of the Light of the World into our darkness.

When the lectionary was revised,
this Gospel was transferred to the 4th Sunday of Advent for Year B–
(we’re in Year A this year, so we’ll hear the story of Joseph’s dream).
Today’s first reading, however, does hearken back to the Introit of the Golden Mass.

May your prayer and sacrifices during these Ember Days
bless and sanctify the winter season for you and for the whole world.

Father,
may the coming celebration of the birth of Your Son
bring us Your saving help and prepare us for eternal life.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Opening Prayer from today’s Mass)

Readings:
Isaiah 45:6-8, 18, 21-25 (drop down dew, and let the earth bud forth a Savior)
Psalm 85:9-14 “Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a savior”
+ Luke 7:18-23 (the blind see, cripples walk, the poor have the good news preached to them)

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain the Just One

Rorate caeli desuper,
et nubes pluant Justum…
-Isaiah 45:8, Douay-Rheims

This is the origin of the hymn “Rorate Coeli,”
once commonly sung in the Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours
during Advent,
lifting to God the plea of the Prophets,
the Patriarchs and the entire Church.
Send Him, Lord! Send the Messiah!

O.R. Vassall-Phillips, C.SS.R., puts these words on the lips of the Blessed Virgin;
she, who, with all the Jews of her time, was longing for the coming of the Messiah,
she who would’ve known these words well from their regular repetition
in the liturgy of the temple and synagogue.

Isaiah’s prayer continues:

…let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Savior:
and let justice spring up together:
I the Lord have created Him
-Isaiah 45:8, Douay-Rheims

Mary was the earth that opened.
God had already referred to the womb as the depths of the earth:

You know me well:
my frame was not hidden from You,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately wrought in the depths of the earth
-Psalm 139:14-15

She was fruitful earth, God’s garden.

you are an garden enclosed, my sister, my bride
-Song of Songs 4:12

She was earth that opened.

Let my lover come into His garden
-Song of Songs 4:16

Let it be done to me according to your word
-Luke 1:38

She opened to the living water of the Holy Spirit Who overshadowed her (see Luke 1:35)

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says,
“From within him there shall flow rivers of living water”
He said this…of the Holy Spirit
Whom they who believed in Him were to receive
-John 7:38-39

God did not create this earth to be barren.

For this says the Lord, the creator of the heavens,
Who is God, the designer and maker of the earth,
Who established it, not creating it to be a waste,
but designing it to be lived in
-Isaiah 45:18

God came to live in Mary.
By His power, she budded forth the Savior.

Our Gospel shows us the fruit of this bud:

The blind recover their sight, cripples walk,
lepers are cured, the deaf hear, dead men are raised to life,
and the poor have the good news preached to them
-Luke 7:22

That’s what God does when the earth opens to Him.

We, too, are earth.
The name God gave to mankind in the beginning, “Adam,”
literally means, “red earth.”

We, too, were designed to be lived in.
We, too, were designed to open to the dew of God, to the rains of His Holy Spirit.
He desires to live in us.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man listens to My voice and opens the door to Me,
I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me.
-Revelation 3:20

If anyone love Me, he will keep My word,
and My Father will love him
and we will come to him and make our abode with him
-John 14:23

Do you not know that you are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
-I Corinthians 3:16

Once these rains have watered us, once God Himself dwells within us,
“let the earth bud forth the Savior.”

Go and report what you have seen and heard
-Luke 7:22

…go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you
-Matthew 28:19-20

Through our mission of drawing people to baptism, discipleship and teaching,
the blind will recover their sight, cripples will walk, lepers will be cured,
the deaf will hear, dead men will be raised to life,
and the poor will have the good news preached to them (see Luke 7:22).
That’s what God does with earth open to Him.

For those privileged with physical fertility, as for Mary,
this has another, very concrete, application.
Pope John XII, speaking to the mothers of Italy, put it this way:

Go home, have a lot of babies.
The Lord did not intend this world to be just a cemetery.
-Pope John XXII

God did not design this earth to be a waste.
He designed it to be lived in.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain the Just One:
let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Savior:
and let justice spring up together:
I the Lord have created Him
-Isaiah 45:8, Douay-Rheims

Rorate coeli!