Mary is there for us without getting in the way.
Do you know what I mean?
We should be there for
people, especially at times of need, but without getting in the way.
This is the art of Mary – and it should be ours as well.
Sometimes people are so ready to help others that their desire to
help becomes a hindrance.
By contrast Our Lady discerns where she’s actually needed. She accepts
God’s appointments – at the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the
Presentation, Cana in Galilee, Calvary, Ascension, Pentecost – we can trace her
faithful appearances right through the New Testament.
Mary’s art - pretty well a perfect art - is first to be there and then second
to put her Son and not herself centre stage. Do whatever he tells you
she says at the marriage in Cana making herself the humble instrument of solving
the wine crisis by pointing to Jesus.
I am the handmaid of the Lord she says the first time we meet
her in scripture, when the Angel came to announce her divine motherhood: Let
what you have said be done to me.
To love Jesus is to love his mother – and to take a leaf out of her
book.
It’s the book of trust, obedience, humility, expectancy,
persistence, and faithful love.
When Mary went to Elizabeth in today’s Gospel she listened to her
cousin first and praised God second. The evening prayer of the church
would be all the poorer if Mary hadn’t praised – we love her Magnificat. Its context though is
telling. Mary’s Magnificat came out
of a time of listening. Our Lady came from listening to God in her Annunciation
to the hill country where she first listened to Elizabeth and to her story of
her child leaping in the womb. Mary listened and affirmed Elizabeth, bringing
the two of them to God in prayer.
Mary is there for people without getting in the way. To learn from
Mary is to be a pupil in a school of listening because listening brings us
close to people and to God.
The world cries out for people ready to listen! There’s so much around
us telling us what to buy, who to
trust or not trust, where to go on holiday, how to spend our time, improve our
health, invest our money – there’s so much info rmation
coming at us day in and day out, so much that tells us, so little that will listen
to us.
Who will make us their
agenda so to speak?
Mary could forget herself and be there for people and for God
because she knew herself as loved by God. Because she had an ear to God and to
her own dignity she had an ear to the needy – to this day!
Holy Mary attends to your needs and mine right now interceding for
us before the Lord!
We’re entering a celebration which will bring many of us close to
relatives for longer times than we often spend with them. Can we see a
missionary opportunity? We’re soon to be in a position where we can give
something more of ourselves to our friends and family. How can we best do this?
How can we best give more of ourselves?
By listening to God and then secondly to ourselves with Mary. Mary encourages us to a positive self-regard. The Almighty has done great things for me. Take
stock of all that Jesus is doing in your life and rejoice! Take stock also of
the ingrained selfishness, the ‘dog in the manger’ bit so you can give it to
God in confession.
With Mary let us see what God wants be done in and through us and
in and through our church.
Listen to God, listen to yourself, sift and purify your agenda, then listen to those God puts your way
who need your ears!
As we listen to others in these coming days with our outer ears let’s
keep two inner ears listening to God
and to our own reaction to what you hear lest it get in the way.
Like Mary let’s be there for people without getting in their way.
Being surrendered ourselves, as at this Eucharist, to whatever God wants of us,
to be made a Christ-bearer under the watchful care of the Mother of believers.
Jesus who was first carried by Mary at Bethlehem, who is carried
to us in Bread and Wine this morning, waits to be carried by you and me to a
waiting world!
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