Mary, the Mother of God (C)
(Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21)
In the second reading we heard St. Paul telling his
converts in Galatia:
As proof that you are sons, God
sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba,
Father!"
Today, therefore, Mother Church invites us to consider how
wonderfully the Spirit dwelt in the heart of Mary: not just for her admiration
and praise, but also for our own great good, and thus, indeed, for the supreme
glory of God!
St. Paul’s words reveal to us something of the innermost ‘secret’
of Mary: they speak not what she might have been capable of, able – of herself
-- to do, but of what the Holy Spirit Himself did in and through her; indeed, they
speak also of what Mary allowed the Holy Spirit to do in and through her. He did ‘great things’, but could not -- could
not because He would not – do them without her co-operation; without her
giving-up, losing hold of, indeed, total abnegation of, self; without, that is, her most radical and simple self-forgetfulness. Such self-emptiness before Him, such total openness
for Him, such absolute commitment to Him and His purposes; that indeed, is the secret of Mary:
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord;
be it done unto me according to Your Will.
So absolute -- so complete and unreserved -- was the
response of Mary to God’s initial words delivered to her by the angel Gabriel,
that Jesus openly praised her for that above all else (Luke 11:27-28):
A certain woman from the crowd
raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and
the breasts which nursed You!" But
He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and
keep it!"
Blessed are those who
hear the word of God, who like Mary let that word freely -- like a threaded
needle -- introduce the Spirit of God into their lives, allowing Him to commence His work in them. Blessed indeed are those who then keep, hold
onto, turning neither heart nor head to the right or to the left, but always,
simply and solely, allowing God’s word and God’s Spirit to lead them where He
will.
We can recall here another Mary of whom the New Testament
speaks most clearly in this same vein, for she is able to help us learn
something more about Our Lady’s ‘secret’:
Jesus entered a village where a
woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him.
She had a sister named Mary, who sat beside the Lord at His feet
listening to Him speak. Martha, burdened
with much serving came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister
has left me by myself to do all the serving?
The Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and
worried about many things. There is need
of only one thing, Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken
from her. (Luke 10:38-42)
Clearly, important choices have to be made, perhaps friends
offended and opposition provoked; at times, even good, very good things left
aside, behind, for what is better.
‘Secretum meum, mihi.’
For further guidance we can also recall the experience of
Elijah of old:
At the mountain of God, Horeb,
Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.
The word of the Lord came to him, ‘Go outside and stand on the mountain
before the Lord, the Lord will be passing by.’
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks
before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but
the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire, but the Lord was not in the
fire. After the fire, there was a tiny
whispering sound. When he heard this,
Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the
cave. A voice said to him, ‘Elijah, why
are you here? ... ‘Go take the road back to the desert near Damascus. When you arrive you shall anoint Hazael as
king of Aram... Then Jehu, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of
Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.’ (1 Kings 9, 11-16)
The voice of God had been ardently desired, long awaited,
and carefully listened for, by the prophet in his great need. Ultimately he recognized it by its unearthly
calm and peace-breaking quiet which bespoke of holiness and led him to hide his
face in his cloak before it, that thus he might listen closely and understand
clearly what the Lord would have him do to achieve his destiny.
In our Gospel reading we learnt that those who searched for
the Child found:
Mary and Joseph, and
the Infant lying in a manger.
So it is for all those disciples whom Jesus has told to
take Mary to their hearts as their own Mother: in our search for Jesus, we will
find Him, most easily and most surely, with the help and comfort of Mary’s
prayerful presence in our lives. Mary is
no mere addition, certainly no complication, for Catholic spirituality. Indeed, we can readily appreciate the
privilege of Mary that enables her to lead each and every one of us to Jesus
when we recall that she is not simply the model of the Church, but that, during
her pregnancy she was, in all literal truth, the original Church itself, the
unique dwelling place on earth of Jesus, God’s Son made flesh, the New
Testament Ark of God’s presence among His People; and that she still is the
purest essence of the Church, without spot or wrinkle of any sort. Only in Mother Church can each and every one
of us find Jesus truly and love Him fully, and that we will do most surely with
Mary’s indispensable help.
St. Paul is quite explicit: it is the Spirit within us Who
cries out Abba, Father! It is not
that He authorises us, permits us, or even, enables us to cry, Abba, Father! It
is the Spirit Himself, first coming to us as God’s gracious and most gloriously
mysterious GIFT -- the sublimely precious fruit of Christ’s sacrifice -- Who
thus speaks in us and for us to the Father.
Thus is Jesus, Mary’s Son, born anew in each of us for the Father. After that, everything depends on just how
much ‘room’ – so to speak -- we give the Spirit of Jesus to work freely and
fruitfully in us; and that means that we must appreciate, learn from, and adopt
in our own lives something of the ‘secret’ of Mary our mother: for that will ultimately determine our human and Christian development as children
of God and children of Mary.
We should recognise that Mary is our model and inspiration
for our deepest and most personal relationship with Jesus, in so far as she --
our Mother -- was, and is always, most sublimely one with her Son:
Mary kept all these things (that she had experienced and heard
concerning Jesus) and pondered them in her heart.
She is the supreme example and the surest guide for anyone
seeking salvation; for anyone hoping and longing to find God as our true Father
in, through, and with Jesus. First and
foremost, we should Imitate Mary by treasuring the Good News of Jesus handed
down to us by Mother Church: in her teaching which forms us as His disciples,
and in her Scriptures, which not only recount for us the foreshadowing and
forthcoming of the Christ, but also, with her sacraments, mediate His very
presence in our midst as members of His Church, and in our individual hearts as
His true disciples today.
People of God, hear the Good News of Jesus with reverence
and joy; treasure and nurture His grace in your hearts; and seek, above all, to
respond – by the Spirit -- with that wholehearted confidence in, gratitude and
commitment to, God, to which Mary gave such perfect expression when she said:
Behold, the handmaid
of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.
Holy Mary, you are indeed blessed above all women by God
the Father, for through you there comes to us the One in Whom and through Whom
all the blessings of heaven itself are ours!
