“In the fullness of time, God sent His Son, born of a woman.”
Imagine the Mother of God, giving birth to the only begotten Son of God in a manger. There were many questions that could have been on her mind as she brought forth the Son of God surrounded by animals.
“Why couldn’t one of Joseph’s relatives give us a room? After all, isn’t Bethlehem his birthplace and origin?”
“Why is God allowing me to bring forth His only begotten Son in this manger?”
“Is there any chance that I can get better accommodation for my beloved son?”
“Why did the angel Gabriel leave out this important piece of information that I would be giving birth to Jesus in a manger and be denied a room in the inn?”
None of these questions were on her pure mind. The only thing on her mind was how God was inviting her to respond at that moment and grow in her freedom, “Mary kept all these things pondering them in her heart.” She accepted reality but also listened to the divine invitation behind it. Thus, she grasped that God was asking her to fulfill His will and name the baby Jesus, “When the eight days were completed for His circumcision, He was named Jesus, the name given Him by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”(Lk 2:16-21)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us how freedom must come from choices flowing from our hearts, ”Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility…The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes.”(CCC 1731, 1733)
St. Paul emphatically declares that, according to the divine plan, the Blessed Virgin Mary freely cooperated with Jesus in making us children of God, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Jesus freely gave Himself in becoming one like us and Mary also freely made a complete gift of herself to God, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”(Lk 1:38) By becoming truly our mother in the spiritual life, she also cooperated in making us truly free, “So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God.”(Gal 4:4-7) We become more like Jesus, the true Son of God, as we mature in inner freedom.
Our Blessed Mother Mary continues to play the role of helping us grow in that freedom today in the following ways.
First, she helps us to hold on to the gift of our exalted dignity as God’s beloved children. Mary never let her conditions or experiences in life diminish the sense of her dignity as Mother of God. She never doubted or questioned this amazing dignity that God gave her no matter her experiences or conditions, “Henceforth, all ages will come me blessed.”(LK 1:48) She believed in that dignity, and she lived accordingly.
We children of God need her help a lot because we easily forget or ignore our dignity as children of God. We easily begin to let our bad experiences, hurts, pains, failures, and sins define us. We wallow in sin and begin to lose the sense of our adoption by God. We need the Blessed Mother to help us focus on cultivating our inner freedom in all events instead of seeking only favorable conditions in life.
Secondly, she opens our hearts to the liberating power of her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”(2Cor 3:17) This same Spirit makes us God’s adopted children and brings us interior freedom, “As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father.’”
The early Church grasped the power of the Blessed Mother in preparing them for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so they invited her to pray with them in preparation for Pentecost. You can just sense the trust and unity of the disciples around Mary as they prayed, “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus.”(Acts 1:14) We too should pray with Mary to experience the liberating presence and power of the Spirit.
Lastly, she helps us to know the truth and fulfill it with love in all conditions. She did not just ponder everything in her heart during the most trying and difficult moments of her life. She is also all about helping us fulfill the will of God in all conditions. She shows this constant desire in her heart for each of us when she said to the servants at Cana, “Do whatever He (Jesus) tells you.” (Jn 2:5) She knows that, unless we too do the will of God in all conditions, we cannot never mature in our inner freedom. In the words of Jesus, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”(Jn 8:32) We can find the truth in all conditions and live accordingly if we learn from Mary how to ponder all things in our hearts.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us live our spiritual lives today fixated on our conditions and experiences. It is right for us to pray for favorable and pleasant conditions. There is also nothing wrong in trying to understand why things happen in our lives. However, if we approach life only praying for favorable conditions and trying to understand the difficult ones, then we are going to be left complaining, grumbling, frustrated, and restless.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
Image credit: The Annunciation (detail) | Sandro Botticelli, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
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About the author:
Fr. Nnamdi Moneme, OMV, is a Roman Catholic priest and religious of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary currently serving in the Philippines. He teaches theology and is a seminary formator for candidates to the priesthood and religious life. Father also gives Ignatian retreats and serves as spiritual director to many of the lay, religious, and clergy in the area.
He earned his first degree in Physics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Ordained in 2009, he studied at St. John’s seminary, in Brighton, Massachusetts. Father has an STL/MA in Moral Theology from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines.
Father Moneme blogs at https://toquenchhisthirst.wordpress.com/.
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