Monday, December 12, 2016

Mary Christmas

I've been thinking a lot about Mary lately.  

Given the recent Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the ongoing Nativity story during Advent, it is hard not to.

Mostly I have been trying to "feel" what it must have been like for her the day the Angel Gabriel came to visit her.  

I'm trying to remove the numbness that hearing the same passage over and over brings with it.  

Trying to get past the words I have heard hundreds of times.  

Trying to forget that I know the answer in the back of the book.  

Mary was given a choice.  Say yes, or no, to a request that is almost beyond human comprehension.  

In her early teens.  

And by the way, saying "yes" to God's Will would bring with it the overwhelming threat of public humiliation and, likely, punishment by death.  (Side note ... was Mary the first person that every risked her life for Jesus?  Interesting.)

In any case, we have the luxury of knowing how the story ends.  Mary, at least to our knowledge, did not.  

She had to say yes to an idea that probably went against everything she had expected.  The Savior they had been waiting for was going to be born to a virgin?  In the poor area of Nazareth?  To her???

It was her faith against all that.  And her faith won.

May God grant all of us just a small portion of our Blessed Mother's faith ...

I hope you are all having a Blessed Advent.




3 comments:

Victor S E Moubarak said...

We owe Mary a lot for saying "Yes" to God.

Imagine God asked something of us. Would we have the courage to say "Yes" and do it?

He did ask "Love one another as I have loved you"; did He not?

Happy Advent, Michael.

God bless.

Manny said...

You know, thinking about it, I would say that saying "yes" might have been easier than one thinks. I would have said yes if I would have comprehended the whole situation. But if faced with an angel who told me things like that, I would probably have questioned myself and if it were all an illusion or delusion. I think believing what actually happened might have been more difficult than saying yes. Good post Michael.

Sr. Ann Marie said...

Mary's situation and her courage and faith have always amazed me. I can't begin to imagine myself in her situation! And yet I would imagine most of us have, at some point in our lives, have said "Yes" to situations the outcome of which we couldn't fully understand or comprehend--although certainly not as mind boggling as Mary's!