Christmas event is all about God’s self-emptying love; God becoming man and being born of the Virgin Mary. Mary’s “yes” to the angel was a sine qua-non to initiate God’s climax-revelation and the human salvation. Mary was singularly favoured (Lk. 1:28) and chosen by God to be the Mother of His only Son.
But, that “highly favored one” had to go through an abundance of trials and hardships. Carrying out God’s plan cost her so much. Although she is considered the ‘short-cut’ to Jesus, she knew no short cuts to fulfill God’s plan of salvation. The path she trod was thorny and full of uncertainties.
Mary’s life teaches us that God’s chosen are to travel through narrow and thorny paths. All our trials and endless sufferings are never a sign of Gods abandonment.
Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross has made each one of us a highly favoured child of God. As a chaplain to the National Hospitals-Colombo, what I see each day is the sickness, suffering and death. Yet, I am surprised to see their immense trust in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord while I administer Holy Communion.
Even after losing their hands and legs most of them do not seem to have lost their hope. What I know and believe is that their suffering is not a sign of God’s abandonment. Instead, it is a sign of God’s presence in their lives.
What I have come to believe is that where there is more suffering and trial, there are more opportunities for love. Our “choseness” does not mean that our life is free of trials and challenges, sorrow and tears, uncertainties and hardships. Mary’s faith was a leap into the dark. It was similar in the case of Abraham the father of Faith. He left his familiar Haran and ventured into the unknown -an uncertain territory - having trusted in the Lord even at old age of seventy (Gen. 12:1ff). So was it in the life of our Blessed Mother or rather even more.
If Abraham is the “Father of faith,” Mary should be the “Mother of Faith” in its fullest sense of the word, when we see her trustful leap into the dark!
King, yet born in a manger!
“He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David” (Lk. 1:32) were the words of the angel addressed to Mary. Mary would have never imagined her Divine Son to be born in a Manger. Everyone at Bethlehem refused to give them shelter and the manger would never have been as beautiful, cute and clean as the modern cribs of our day. A manger naturally lies in a place that stinks with the urine and dung of cattle. Our Blessed Mother would have been perplexed as to why the birthplace of her son had to be a cow-shed; would not there be any other better place for God’s Son? Yet, she never complained but willingly accommodated herself to all these discomforts.
Creator of the universe, yet fleeing as a refugee!
“The wise men knelt down and paid him homage. Opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Mt.2:11). Mary must have been very pleased to see her divine Child been honoured with royal gifts, like any of our mothers who love to see their children honoured. Alas!
Her happiness was just instant as they had to pack the things and flee to Egypt as refugees (Mt.2:13). The cruel hand of a tyrant was hunting her new-born infant too.
Humanly speaking, Mary would have been so upset to escape this way and the journey would have been very tedious as she had just been after child-birth. Although all these divine plans for her and her son were beyond her understanding, she willingly obeyed the Lord with complete trust.
Saviour of all, yet not saved from the trial!
“I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Lk. 2:10-11), were the words of the angel whose chorus rang out over the hills of Bethlehem that night and harkened with wonder by the shepherds in the field. They reported this to Mary and Joseph as they came to pay homage to this ‘Saviour Child’ and Mary treasured these words (Lk. 2:17, 19).
When Jesus was arrested, condemned, mocked and crucified Mary would have been at a loss to see the apparent contradiction of the prophecy of the angels.
Why on earth the ‘Saviour’, ‘Messiah’, ‘the Lord’ (Lk. 2:11) has to go through this entire agony and trial? Her heart must have cried out in agony and disappointment.
Yet, she knew that God had not abandoned her. She was hopeful even when all the things seemed so dark and contradictory.
He spoke all good things, yet what was spoken of Him lately was no good!
Many good things were spoken of the Child. Simeon the righteous one took the child Jesus in his arms at the Temple, praised God saying “… my eyes have seen the salvation” (Lk. 2:30).
There, Anna the prophetess saw Child Jesus and began to praise God and to speak about Him (Lk. 2:38). Mary and Joseph were amazed at what was spoken of their Child at the Temple (Lk. 2:33).
She definitely felt honored and privileged to be recognized as the Mother of this great and promising Child.
But some year’s later people spoke all kinds of evil about Him. They called Him a lunatic: “They said, “He is out of his mind” (Mk. 3:21), many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane, why listen to him?” (Jn. 10:20), and others “here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Mt. 11:19). One cannot imagine how Mary faced these false allegations against her Son.
They were so frustrating that once she comes with his brethren to give cover to Jesus and take him home (Mk. 3:21). But, later she realised that all these trials and accusations were never a hindrance to God who was unfolding His plan of salvation and she obeyed God, even when the path before her seemed so dark and frustrating.
This aura of mystery that surrounded the mother of Jesus invites us who love and cherish the maternal intercession of our blessed Mother to learn from her life-story that all our trails, challenges and dark moments are never a sign of abandonment, yet they can be a powerful sign of God’s ever vigilant watch over us: to realise how He moulds us much the way as the clay is in the hands of the skilled potter.
Never should we be ever tempted to think that we are unimportant in the sight of the Lord even when our life is struck by tempests and storms. We are all favourite sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. More the love God has for us, more the challenges are to be expected on our path. More the challenges we face, more the love is experienced.
We never have to face all the trials by ourselves but God’s encouraging presence is always present in ways that are visible though mysterious. It is mysterious, because such a divine presence must be viewed only through lens of faith, visible because it touches me through my neighbour’s care for me. - Messenger
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