Luke 1:39 - 45
I’m sure you've had the experience
of thinking you know someone, and then discovering that you had it
all wrong.
We Catholics have been brainwashed, I
think. There is hardly anything in the New Testament about Mary, so
down through the ages we've evolved this image which we see in
statues and stained glass windows – a young woman, almost always
dressed in blue and white, wearing something like a nun’s habit,
eyes cast down, hands folded. Passive and pious. Of course we have
other images, but they don’t stray too far from what I've
described. Even our manger scenes this time of year generally have
her kneeling as she worships her newborn son. And down through the
ages this is all reinforced. She says to Saint Bernadette, “I am
the Immaculate Conception” “Build a Church in my honor’, she
tells Juan Diego. “Have them make a medal”, she tells St.
Catherine Laboure. And so it goes. I believe Mary has appeared to
many saints down through the ages, and maybe told them things along
those lines. But if she did it was at the request of her Son, not on
her own. The Mary I know would not do that.
So what do we know about Mary from the
Bible? Today we hear that she went to her cousin Elizabeth in haste.
I think that’s a good adjective for Mary. When the angel appeared
to her, and scholars think she was about 12 to 14 years old, Gabriel
says, “you are going to be the mother of the Messiah”. And Mary
doesn't fall on the floor and shake with fright; she replies, “How
can that be? I don’t have a husband.” Mary knows where babies
come from. And when the angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will do
the job, she replies, and I am paraphrasing, “Do to me what you say
will happen.” Mary doesn't want to wait around to do what God
wants of her. Once she knows His will, she is totally on board.
Right after the annunciation she goes
to Elizabeth in haste. Why? She learned from the angel that
Elizabeth, against all expectations, was expecting a child as well.
Did Mary seek out her older cousin to share her own news? I think
there were many reasons Mary went in haste to Elizabeth. One very
human reason was that Mary probably had no one to turn to when she
discovered she was pregnant. Tell mother and father? Not a great
idea. Tell Joseph? No. Who might understand? Cousin Elizabeth!
The angel said she was with child as well. But on another note, I
think Luke gives us a hint. He tells us that Elizabeth is in the
sixth month of her pregnancy and Mary stays with her for three
months. Mary is there to help out. She will cook and clean and
sweep; Zachary and Elizabeth are elderly; Zachary has lost his
voice, and Mary goes to help them out until they get back on their
feet. And she does so with haste. She sees this menial task as
God’s will, and can’t get there fast enough.
And of course we have one more moment
to think about. The Wedding Feast of Cana. We don’t know Mary’s
relationship with the young couple. Since the story only appears in
the Gospel of John, some people have speculated that John is the one
being married. But whatever the case, Mary does not sit quietly in
the corner. She says, and I again paraphrase, “Son, they have no
wine. Fix this!” Mary notices a problem and immediately, in haste,
does something about it. I don’t know what she expected Jesus to
do – maybe go to the local wine merchant and buy some more wine –
but she knows that if she asks, he will do whatever he can.
So what little we know about Mary from
the scriptures make her anything but a passive icon. She isn’t
afraid to be pregnant and go through childbirth, which in those days
was a lot more dangerous and painful than it is now. She isn’t
above cooking and cleaning and taking out the trash for Zachary and
Elizabeth. And she isn’t one to sit by and watch a young couple’s
special time be ruined.
And why is this? I think Elizabeth
tells us. She says, “Blessed are you among women!” And “Blessed
is she who believed the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.”
Mary is blessed because she believes
the Lord. She is free of original sin, so there is nothing in her
that doubts that God loves her, that God wants the best for her, that
God will never desert her. She is free of original sin, so there is
nothing in her that fights against what God wants her to do. Being
in haste, haste to do God’s will, is a characteristic of those who
are freed from original sin. I’m sure you can think of many saints
who were like this. And when you think about it, you and I are freed
from original sin. We still suffer from having had original sin at
one point, so we have a little disadvantage compared to Mary. But we
also know that God loves us and wants the best for us; and we know
what God wants us to do. We’ve got the commandments, we’ve got
the Church, and we’ve got our consciences. God speaks through all
of these to us. So as we once again await the birth of our Lord, let
us resolve to go in haste to do God’s will.
