[1]Today's Gospel tells us everything we need to know about Mary
as the Mother of Divine Providence. The Church has given her this title because
she, better than anyone else, is the perfect teacher of what “Providence” means in our daily lives. She teaches us to believe in the Providence of God, to trust in His Providence, and to cooperate with Divine Providence.
Mary teaches us to believe there is a Providence, by her example in seeing providential opportunities in
whatever occurs in our lives. When Mary recognized they ran out of wine at the
marriage feast, she might have said to herself, “Well, what do they expect? The
people drank so much, now what will the family do?” But notice how Mary acted. She instinctively saw in the
situation a providential act of God. She recognized what we are often slow to
see, God's divinely ordained purpose in every person, every event, every joy,
and in every pain.
What this means is, like
Mary, we need to understand everything has a divinely intended purpose, and this
purpose is to draw us closer to God. Viewed in this way we can see everyone and
every situation that touches our lives is meant to be a grace from God. This
includes our mistakes and the mistakes of others. God even uses the wrong we do
to mysteriously lead us to Him, giving us the opportunity for humble repentance
and patient acceptance when wronged by others.
Mary teaches us to
always trust in God's goodness and wisdom, no matter how painful
or hopeless a situation may seem. Humanly speaking, once the wine ran out there
was nothing else to do except resign oneself to the obvious. But for Mary, she
knows who her Son is, even before asking Him, she told the stewards, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn
2:5) Talk about trust! Mary had no doubt her Son
would work the miracle. The pre-condition for the miracle was Mary's confidence
in her Son answering her request. There are many things God asks us to do here
and now and wants us to trust we won’t be deceived in what we hope for.
Finally, Mary teaches us
beyond believing in Divine Providence and trusting in God’s loving care, we are to cooperate with the graces He frequently puts into our lives.
These graces are the persons who touch our life, they’re events we experience, and
they’re all too often the people and events we regularly take for granted.
Like Mary, we are to
condition ourselves to see, that part of God's Providence is the effort we make
to respond to every providential
opportunity God puts into our lives.[2]
Let us close with a prayer: “Mother of Divine Providence, teach us to see God's loving will in everything. Teach us to trust, as you did, that the promises made to us will be fulfilled. Above all, Dear Mother, teach us never to resist any grace your Son sends us, no matter how costly our cooperation with His love may be.”
[1] Scripture (NABRE), Isaiah 66:10-14; John 2:1-11.
[2] The Real Presence Association, Mother of Divine Providence by Fr. John A. Hardon,
S.J. Copyright © 1998 Inter Mirifica.
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