10 Things I Learned From Mary

I recently gave a talk at my parish about Mary. You can hear a recording of this talk by clicking HERE. I want to share here a specific portion of the talk where I listed out 10 things that I have learned from Mary. 

1. Mary Said YES – Mary not only said yes to being the mother of Jesus, but she also said yes to everything else that would be required of her from that point on in regard to this child. Isn’t this what all motherhood is. Our first yes is to life, then we are called to say yes to all that the child will need from us as mother, no matter what. In order for her to say yes, it’s important to realize that she was prepared for that moment. Before the angel appeared to her, Mary was prayerful, she believed in the coming of the Messiah, she fully trusted in the Lord, she longed to do the will of God in all things, she was full of hope and joy and peace as she stood under God’s grace. Mary’s disposition before the Annunciation is worth us meditating upon. Her heart was softened and prepared for the calling of the Lord to be the Mother of God. How well prepared are we for the calling of the Lord in our own lives? 
2. Mary Waited – Mary waited for the Lord to act. When St. Joseph first heard of Mary’s pregnancy, scripture tells us that he was going to divorce her quietly. We don’t then hear of Mary trying to convince him that this really was the Messiah or yelling at him for abandoning her and the child. Instead Mary waits for the Lord, which allowed the Holy Spirit the space to act; and the Lord was faithful to her by sending an angel to Joseph to tell him to take Mary as his wife and Jesus as his son. Also, consider the fact that if St. Joseph would not have taken on that role of being the head of the Holy Family, this would have left Mary in a lot of danger. This was not some small waiting that Mary did, and she was no doubt praying that the Lord would work it all out.
3. Mary Shares Jesus with Others – Mary travels to the Hill Country to visit Elizabeth, bringing the new gift of life in her womb, Jesus Christ. This was one of the very first sharings of the Word. Notice what the response was to this authentic witness. John the Baptist leaped for joy in the womb of his mother and Elizabeth praised and glorified God! It is important to consider how we are sharing Jesus with others. When we talk about Jesus or serve our neighbor is it lifting souls up to glorify God? 
4. Mary Reveals the Depths of Motherhood – The story of when Mary and St. Joseph lose Jesus in Jerusalem shows a side of Mary that I believe reveals the depths of motherhood. As mothers, our children spend the first 9 months of life in our womb. This unique union between mother and child is what allows mothers to experience deeply the loss, separation, pain, suffering, and sorrows of their children. It is so deep that it actually feels like we are going through it with them or that part of our own self is lost. But this same deep union between mother and child is also how mothers are able to enter deeply into prayer for their child. I know that for me it was my mother who did that for me. They offered up deep deep prayers and groans to the Lord for me. I will be forever grateful to them for that. 
5. Mary Gives the Gift of her Son back to God – At the Wedding at Cana, Mary sends Jesus out on his mission by inviting Him to perform His first miracle. This is a huge act of surrender by her and it reveals to us her heart. It shows us that her faith was in God first and that she was willing to let go of her Son as an act of submission to God’s Will. So instead of trying to protect Jesus or keep him to herself, she sent him out with full trust in the Lord. In so many ways we go into protection mode when it comes to our children. We try to keep them under our wing for far too long, never thinking to help them learn to fly on their own. But this is not God’s Will. He wants us to freely give away what we have freely received from Him. When we see that our children are a gift from God, we will have an easier time leading them back into the arms of our Lord.
6. Mary Points to her Son. There is a story in the gospel where the crowd calls attention to Mary. This was done in order to try to honor and praise her as they honored Jesus, which would have taken the focus off of Jesus. Notice what Mary does in this scenario; when the crowd tries to draw attention to her, she allows Jesus to respond and then she seems to disappear back into the crowd. Jesus teaches the crowd in this moment that they too can share in that familial relationship with God by uniting their hearts to Him. This story stands as a constant reminder to us today that devotion to Mary must always be a means by which we are led to Jesus and the Church. Our love for Mary should never be done at the expense of leaving out Jesus, who is our Savior.
7. Mary Stood at the Injustice of the Cross. Mary was there throughout the Passion. She walked the entire journey with her Son. It was only Mary, Mary Magdalene and St John who were able to withstand the cruelty and the injustice of those events. It was bloody, it was cruel, it was horrific. Can you even imagine as a mother watching your child go through something so horrific? This is the sword that pierced Mary’s heart. This is the Sorrowful Mother. But this is also the woman who was strong enough to STAND at the foot of the cross. In the face of the single most unjust act, what was Mary’s response? She stood in the face of injustice and became a powerful witness to the love of God. There is a lot of injustice in the world, we may want to consider Mary’s response when we think of how we are responding to it.
8. Mary Forgave – After they laid her son in the tomb, Mary turned to prayer. In her pain and sorrow, she could have started to accuse the Apostles for abandoning Jesus and not trying to stop the crucifixion. She could have been upset with the hypocrisy of the crowd, who once cried out to Jesus to heal them, but were now crying out “crucify him”. Mary could have abandoned faith all together and lost all hope, but Mary didn’t do any of these things. In what I would consider the bravest act of human forgiveness, Mary chose to fervently pray for the Apostles knowing that they needed it. Through her act of turning to prayer after the Passion, she had to choose to forgive so many people for their involvement or lack of involvement in the Passion of her Son. But it was through forgiveness, that the love of God was able to be used in a very powerful way. The result being that her intercession, and the prayers of the Apostles in the Upper Room, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them in a real, effective, powerful and life-changing way. Thus we have the birth of the Church.
9. Mary Influenced St John’s Gospel. Although Mary seemed to have disappeared into the crowd again after Pentecost, what we do know is that she lived with St. John for the remainder of her life on earth. With this, she no doubt had a major influence on St. John. So much so that it had an impact on the perspective from which he wrote his gospel. In John’s gospel, while we don’t hear the story of Jesus’ birth and Mary’s part in that, we do see a very deep theological understanding of Jesus Christ. Something the other gospel writers were only able to touch on. Mary’s insight into her son was communicated to St John as they lived together. She had the most in depth understanding of her son, the depths of which only a mother would know about her child. St John used this perspective of Mary to give us a deeper and more complete understanding of Jesus Christ.
10. Mary Intercedes for us From Heaven. Mary’s Assumption means she is already living in the hope of the resurrection in which we are all created. Her body and soul are united in heaven. We believe that Jesus will come again at the end of time and we too will be reunited with our resurrected bodies. The hope of this day is what reminds us of the profound dignity of our entire personhood – both body and soul. We were not created good in our spirit and then placed into a bad body. The unique union of body and soul is what makes us human beings. Additionally, Mary has been crowned as the Queen Mother of Jesus Christ who is our King. It is only fitting that she has this title. As Jesus reigns in Heaven, Mary governs over the Kingdom of God by managing souls, gathering them and leading them home.

Mary was given to us as mother by Jesus Christ himself from the cross. She accepted the mission of motherhood to all of humanity and thus she is our mother whether we recognize it or not. I invite you to start reaching out to her with your needs. She is the mother of peace. She wants nothing more than to bring Christ’s peace to each one of us. The Rosary is one way she gives us Christ’s peace. If you have a hard time with the rosary, consider using a book that has reflections for each mystery. Start by praying one deeply meditative, intentional rosary per week. This will do so much more good than trying to force a quick one everyday. Ultimately we should all be working toward setting aside time every day to pray the rosary, but it’s important to first learn how to love the rosary. This is done by taking your time and meditating upon each mystery, drawing all the fruits available to you from this most beautiful prayer of Our Lady.

Our Lady Queen of Peace, Pray for Us!