MEETING
MARY
VOCATION PAGE
Vol. XV
No. 11
December 2003
To Treasure These Things
HOW MARY WALKED WITH JESUS
To the end
Mother Teresa of Calcutta – recently beatified by Pope John Paul – once said that the most dreaded disease of our times is not AIDS, cancer, paralysis - but rather to discovering that you are unwanted, unloved. This, too, was Jesus’ most painful experience as he chased his last breath on the cross, when everybody had abandoned him except for the three women and the man loved by him.
Let us focus our attention on one of the women who stood by him to the end of his earthly life.
Jesus’ mother, Mary, was there. It’s the instinct of a mother to protect her own. That’s why she stood at the foot of the cross. - to accompany and be part of the sufferings of her son. That’s what Mary is all about: defined in the most intimate way - love. The gesture of Mary loving her son is the very representation of the Father’s love for us, a God who cannot hate and forget His own.
The early years
I would like you to take back to the early years of Jesus and to how much Mary loved her son.
When Mary received the so-called “good news” from Gabriel she was perplexed. How can this be when I don’t know a man? Yet she gave her Yes to the plan of God - to be the mother of our liberator (Lk. 1:26-38). Mary set aside her plans with Joseph. This is the beginning of dropping her plans and dreams and giving way to the will of God.
This incident was followed by a strong blow when Mary was about to give birth to her son and there was no room to accommodate them. As much as Mary wanted to deliver her baby in a dignified and suitable place, Joseph found a stable, a manger (Lk. 2:1-7).
I suppose that women need a suitable place to give birth. Imagine the pain she was bearing - and then she found herself in a stable, a place where animals are kept. This must have been a humiliating experience for her. Yet God’s will must prevail.
Family life
Another blow came to the Holy Family. As soon as King Herod learned that he had been cheated by the astrologers he ordered his fine soldiers to search for the baby boys of Bethlehem and kill them. Out of fear the Holy Family has to escape to Egypt to spare their son. Imagine the journey - day and night to escape the wrath of the King (Mt. 2:13-18). Once again, Mary has to drop her plans to the waste basket to give way to God’s will.
Again, another tension prevailed in the life of this family - the boy got lost for three good days. Upon finding their son in the midst of the Jewish teachers, Mary in her motherly voice asked her boy, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been terribly worried trying to find you.” And you know what the boy Jesus replied? “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?”
The heart of Mary must have been torn open to hear her son talking in this fashion (Lk. 3:41-51). As a normal reaction for mothers Jesus deserved to receive blows from a guava stick, you know! Yet, as usual, his mother let go of her need to reprimand her son in the sight of men.
Luke the evangelist tells us that his mother treasured all these things in her heart (Lk. 2:51). She must have pondered privately what her son told her in public.
Growing up
Then came the time for the grown-up Jesus to face his public ministry and bid goodbye to his mother. What a traumatic experience for Mary to find herself single-handedly facing her life without someone to depend on (Lk. 4:14). To top it all, Mary wanted to meet her son, to check how his life is going after leaving home. What she heard was this remark from her son: “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Lk. 8:19-21). Slowly, slowly, Mary felt that her son did not belong by right to her anymore. Again, she has to drop her maternal rights over Jesus. This might have been one of the darkest moments in her life.
But only people who have the courage to walk willingly in darkness will see the stars. People who walk in daylight will not be able to see the beauty of the stars. Falling stars come out at evening time. Wishes come with wishing stars, hope becomes tangible. Hope comes from God himself. Mary willingly walked the path of darkness to be able to hope in God and so enjoy His beauty and grandeur.
Hardest pain
Perhaps the hardest of all these painful experiences for Mary was to learn that her son was accused of blasphemy. I suppose that the heart of Mary was crushed. She knew that this tension would lead to inhuman torture and eventually death. She knew from the people around her that the Pharisees and Sadducees were looking for ways to eliminate her son. The feeling of fear, anxiety and worry brought sleepless nights for her. As much as she wanted to save her boy from the temple authorities, she felt helpless. The disciples of Jesus, the people she thought could save her son, were nowhere to be found. She must have cried and prayed for deliverance to her God.Until the moment she found herself at the foot of the cross (Lk. 23:44-48), Mary’s heart must have bled.
Being comforted
But wait - the painful story of Mary did not end in this hopeless fate! You know what happened with her seemingly hopeless and pitiable situation? She was one of the recipients of the “Comforter” as promised by her son. The Easter Spirit inaugurated by her son’s resurrection came true.
This religious experience set in motion a new impulse among the disciples, thanks to her risen son. It would have been logical for Mary to harbor hatred towards the merciless authorities who made her son suffer. But that is a mother - always the first one to offer forgiveness and always the last one to judge. This must be a real gift that Mary has for us.
More and more I am convinced that women are often more person-oriented than men like me. While men want to argue and find logic and practicality in all things, women build bridges. Mary, too, was different. In her story she reminds us of what is good and right in the way we deal with each other.
In fact there was a great difference between Mary and the disciples. Her heroism was not on the spur of the moment. She has already thought of the tragedy that would befall her son. When it was still far away, she had the time to think and to escape. But she did not. In her seeming powerlessness, she confronted the situation and entrusted everything to the God to whom she had said her Yes. That’s why she is honored by the Church and given the title Mother of God. She deserves such honor after accompanying her son till his last breath.
The way of trust
Mary’s undying cooperation in the plan of God was unequaled. Mary acted - and the beautiful story of salvation began. Her generosity shames the mighty, shames our laziness, complacency and fears. Some of us are afraid of being risk-takers, that is to take a leap into the dark.
We can ask Mary how to go about it since she has set an example for us all. Her total abandonment to the Will of the Father serves as an inspiration to us. She knew that her plans and dreams in life were far better than the plan of God for her. That’s what you call trust.
Will you be willing to trust too? Will you be willing to drop all your plans, dreams, aspirations in life? Your job, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your status, handsome salaries and smart cell-phones?
That’s vocation. To be ready to entrust our plans, dreams, jobs - and let the plan of God work in us, knowing that his plan is better than we can imagine.
In Mary shines the grace of God because she allowed God to work in her life. Let’s ask Mary to be courageous like her to accept what God is offering us. We have to know that she is with Jesus her son. She is with us because she is one of us.
She is our mother and she offers her Son to us. She was able to translate her extraordinary mission into our own reality, very simple and ordinary. That’s our mission too. For us to be able to translate to ordinary people the extraordinary goodness of God. To make God understandable and lovable for people who don’t know Him yet. Mary did it. Aren’t we also called to the same mission and vocation as our mother?<WM
Fr. Aldrin Janito MCCJ
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