A New Era Begins: Preface III of AdventThe text of this Preface IV of Advent comes from the reworking of an ancient Ambrosian preface, which has been revised in its present form.
"Truly it is right to give you thanks, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God. We praise you, we bless you and we glorify you for the mystery of the Virgin Mother. For, if ruin came to us from the ancient adversary, in the virginal womb of the daughter of Zion has germinated the one who nourishes us with the bread of the angels, and salvation and peace have sprung up for the whole human race. The grace that Eve took from us has been restored to us in Mary. In her, mother of all men, the motherhood redeemed from sin and death, opens to the gift of a new life. Thus, where sin had grown, your mercy has overflowed in Christ our Savior. Therefore, as we await the coming of Christ, united with the angels and the saints, we sing the hymn of your glory: Holy, Holy, Holy...".
Once again, as in Preface III of Advent, the reason for gratitude to God is already expressed in the protocol: "We praise, bless and glorify you for the mystery of the Virgin Mother", a unique expression in the corpus of the Prefaces, which introduces us to the mystery we are celebrating: that of the Virgin Mary, who with her fiat opened the way to the Incarnation of the Word; that is why she is praised as Virgin Mother and this title already opens us to the contemplation of Mary's greatness, a greatness that is expressed throughout the Preface embolism through a series of antithetical parallels of rare beauty.
The first of the three sections that make up the body of the Preface is interwoven with biblical images, which refer to the typological power of the Virgin Mary. The ruin caused by the ancient adversary (cf. Gen 314-15) was not the last word on man's destiny, because from the virginal womb of the daughter of Zion (Is 62:11; Zech 2:14 and 9:9) was born the one who feeds us with the bread of the angels (Wis 16:20; Jn 6:38).
This last expression is particularly beautiful and important, for it relates the theme of the Eucharistic bread to the mystery of the Incarnation: the virginal womb, a very carnal reality, becomes the womb of a heavenly reality.
The fall, completely repaired thanks to Mary's yes
The second section opens with the antithetical parallelism Eve/Mary, which also gives the title to this Eucharistic text. The fall of our progenitors, already evoked in the previous section in the image of the devil's victory, is totally repaired thanks to Mary's yes, which restores us to our primordial condition. The motherhood of Eve acquires a new dimension in the motherhood of Mary: in fact, the transformation brought about by the Incarnation transforms us from being condemned to death to being destined to immortality.
The typical parallelism of Mary, the new Eve, ends in the figure of Christ, who emerges strongly in the third section: in Christ the Savior, God's mercy overflows precisely where it is most needed, that is, where sin seems to overcome everything.
It is the experience of the Church's wise life that points out precisely in human weakness the place of the manifestation of God's power (cf. 2 Cor 12:7-10) and in sin the place of the emergence of God's greatness.
Each of the sections of the body of the Preface concludes with an emphasis on the messianic gifts (salvation and peace, the gift of new life, mercy), which indicate that Christ is at the doors; in this time before Christmas.
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome)
