According to my mother, I am a gawky ignorant teen who should not be let out of the house alone. In my job, I am responsible for millions of dollars in assets and their safe, legal and profitable motions, but to her, I can't tip properly, never know what to wear, don't know how long it takes to drive anywhere and forget about my holiday menu choices..... it's an irritating little cross, but mine own.
Ah, but our Blessed Mother. She was saved in advance, by her Son, in her Immaculate Conception, and knows it ("My Spirit rejoices in God my Savior..."). She is told by the angel that the Child Who will grow in her womb is the Messiah. In today's Gospel reading, Elizabeth, while preoccupied by the child she is carrying beyond all rational biological clocks, still recognizes the import of the Blessed Baby Whom Mary is carrying and not only knows Him as her Lord, but tells Mary "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."
When you believe, you trust. Mary is trusting the Baby she is carrying, the Toddler she will toilet-train and teach to read, the Little Boy she will make clean His plate and will pray with before bed, the Son with Whom she will play peek-a-boo and dance in the kitchen. She will trust Him with her soul, and ours. (And at the last, He trusts our souls with her.)
The next time you parents help your children drive by gasping and pressing that handy passenger-side brake, remember our models of trust, the Holy Family.
Merry Christmas! Peace be with you and your family and friends.
Of Gods and Men
2 hours ago
2 comments:
Beautiful, T. One of my favorite Scripture passages for a long time now has been the line from this very Gospel reading, "Blessed is she who believed that the word of the Lord to her would be fulfilled."(And I know Jesus didn't sin, but do you suppose that as an adolescent he had moods? What do you suppose they would have looked like? I can't imagine it.)
Anyway, may we believe and trust all the more.
Since Scripture tells us that He was fully man while fully God, and grew in wisdom and holiness, and could be amazed and angry and sad, I've got to believe that He grew up in many ways the same as us.
Including slamming the doors, leaving the lid up, answering back, refusing to go to bed on time..... He must have! Those wouldn't be sins, we don't consider them sins when little children do them, they don't understand and are reacting instinctively. Let's amuse ourselves with listening to Mary, back in the real time when Jesus walked the earth:
"Jesus, please don't pull the cat's tail."
"Jesus, you can't have dessert until you finish your vegetables."
"Jesus, I told You to GO TO BED RIGHT NOW!"
The more I think of Jesus as a real person, the more I understand the God really loves me, with a love I can understand, since it comes through a real human heart.
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