A fruitful read by Peter Leithart: Man’s Marian Future. And not only is our future Marian, but so is our past and present, but only because all time is first and foremost Christological. The Saviour sums up all history, the Alpha and the Omega, the One Who makes all things new.
But in leading all creation to its final end, God uses those very creatures to His purpose, as co-operators in His glorious work. Today’s Gospel from the opening lines of Saint Matthew has the genealogy of Christ, from Abraham to Joseph, in three sets of fourteen generations. As it has been pointed out, they included wayward characters, adulterers and prostitutes, idolatrous kings and pagans, along with righteous men and women, and all in-between. But God’s will was ultimately fulfilled, culminating in the ‘most just man’, Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary, preparing the way for His Christ.
We reach our own ‘place’ in history, and beyond history, by conforming our will to His will, and the one who do that will most perfectly, and helps us do so, is Our Lady, the Theotokos, the Mother of God.
Spend some time with the mother and her Son, along with oft-too-overlooked Saint Joseph, in this time we have left in Advent, as they draw near to the manger. The days are shortening, and history drawing ever-closer to its culmination. Have hope, and joy. God is doing a wonderful thing before our eyes, if we have but eyes to see, as Mary did, pondering all these things in her heart. +