As Christmas approaches the sombreness of Advent season breaks today to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Feast of her sinless Conception.
December 8th is a day of joy marking the choice of Mary to be worthy Mother of the eternal Son of God. In the ancient Greek title given her by the Church Council of Ephesus in 431 AD she is theotokos, the God-bearer. In the Western Church this was translated Mother of God, a source of confusion to some.
How much we owe to Mary! We owe the formation of the Saviour, no less, and not just in his nine month dwelling within her. With Joseph her spouse Mary brought Jesus up. It is an astonishing thought that she would teach him, the Son of God, to pray – Mary a mortal being inviting God’s Son to pray to his true Father!
I like to think of Mary as a woman of great devotion. This devotion is hinted at in her greeting from the Archangel Gabriel in today’s Gospel from the start of St. Luke’s Gospel: Mary, do not be afraid, you have won God’s favour. Listen, you are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus.
You have indeed won God’s favour, Blessed Mother – and through you we have all won that favour, the favour of Jesus.
We best serve God and others with a loving discernment that starts from a determination to listen to God with you. By listening to God and then secondly to ourselves with you at hand. You, Blessed Mother, encourage us towards 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 is your invitation! Take stock also of the ingrained selfishness so you can give it to God in confession. Take stock, Mary invites, of how you and I at times put the work of the Lord before the Lord of the work. It’s when we get too busy in the Lord’s work that thoughtlessness can subtract from our good deeds.
Listen to God, listen to yourself, Mary invites, 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 we 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 Mass, to whatever God wants of us, being 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 this evening, waits to be carried by you and I under the patronage of Mary to a waiting world!
No comments:
Post a Comment