[1]If a small child hurts his finger, he runs to Mommy crying.
All Mommy has to do is to kiss the
finger and it is well again. Children
know their mother loves them and has made a great many sacrifices for them.
In the same way we look on Mary as our heavenly
mother. Remember Jesus’ dying words from
the cross, he said to Mary, “'Woman behold, your son’, and to
John, ‘Behold your mother’” (Jn 19:26-27). We have always
regarded this exchange as Jesus giving us his mother, to be our mother. She is the mother to whom we can tell every
joy and every sorrow.
I took Monday off only to come in to work Tuesday
to find the “Our Sunday Visitor” on my desk open to an article about the
resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick amid a sexual abuse scandal. It was as if a wound that was partially
healed was being reopened. Then this
morning I hear on the news of the release of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury’s
report and the wound was ripped wide open.
In the end these abuses are nothing short of selfishness gone really bad
and an unwillingness to empty ourselves and take up our cross.
Mary’s greatness lies in the fact she was
humble before and surrendered herself to God.
Her words to the angel, at the annunciation, are words for meditation, “Let
it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Because she
surrendered herself to God, God filled her with his presence, just as God desires
to fill us when we surrender ourselves. Mary
surrendering of herself did not mean a perpetual spiritual honeymoon, but a
continual giving of herself to God as time went on. Mary’s sinlessness, obedience and being ‘full
of grace’ led naturally to her assumption, body and soul, into heaven.
There is, in all of us, the tendency or
temptation to refuse to allow God to have control of our lives. We are challenged to surrender our lives to
God. Sometimes we stand before God and
hold out our hands, full of ourselves.
God can’t give himself to us like this, God can only give himself to us
if our hands and our hearts are empty.
Our lives are meant to be given more and more to God. To meet God in heaven we will have to first
fully surrender ourselves to let God be God in our lives. Surrender just as our brother Jesus
surrendered himself totally. He faced abandonment,
ridicule, abuse and even death, death on a cross, for our sanctification, all to
unite us to an all loving Father and heavenly mother.
One way to surrender ourselves and be filled
with the presence of God, like Mary, is to pray the Rosary daily. The Rosary is a great weapon to use against
the temptations of this world. It’s a
prayer that brings us closer to and keeps us close to God. When we pray the Rosary, we are not just
saying prayers, we can tune in to God and our blessed Mother, allowing our
minds to meditate on twenty great events in the life of Jesus.
When we are in the pit of despair, depression,
or desperation not knowing where to turn or how to pray, the Rosary is a
beautiful way to keep us connected to our heavenly mother. When we do so, we can exclaim with Mary her
visitation sentiments:
“My soul proclaims
the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit
rejoices in God my Savior
[1]
Scriptures: 1 Chronicles 15:3-4, 15-16; 16:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:54b-57; Luke
11:27-28
[2] Copyright
© 2013. Fr. Tommy Lane
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