Luke 1: 39-56 Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

So many of us are familiar with Mary's visit to Elizabeth's home before their children were born.  One could think about how miraculous it was that John first recognized the Christ Child even before his birth and Elizabeth was pointed toward him by her son, as was John's role. 

We could also contemplate Mary as the Theotokos, the God-bearer, chosen by the Father before time, as the passage in Genesis foreshadows Mary and Christ (Gn 3:15). 

Perhaps the greatest lesson that can be learned are those of love, humility, faith, and trust that Mary shows in aligning herself with God's will.  These virtues are contained in Mary's Magnificat which she proclaims within today's Gospel.  These virtues are not for women only, but have been attained by male and female saints alike in their following of Christ.  Our Lady is our example in the New Covenant.  Let us pray today that not our will, but your will be done, O Lord.  Amen.

John 6:35-40 Trustful Surrender

There are times when life gets hard.  There are days when we just seem to have bad luck after bad luck.  Sometimes we just want to cry, but harden ourselves against the world by putting up walls.  Jesus reminds us today that we can trust in him.  He is from the Father, and the Father gives him all that he has promised, just like Christ gives us all that he has promised. 

He is offering us that opportunity to be nourished, caressed, comforted; we just need to trust and surrender ourselves to him to be healed.

Mark 3:7-12 In God We Trust

Taken from my journal:

When was the last time that you looked at your money?  It says, “In God we trust.”  We hear in our Psalm today we hear the message more completely, “In God I trust, I shall not fear.”  This is the same sentiment that St. Agnes had as she resolutely held fast to her faith in Christ desiring to remain chaste and pure for the Lord despite the suitors who threatened to expose her as a Christian during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.  There are many legends of St. Agnes and how this young girl of noble blood was dragged through the streets by the Roman prefect and that the Lord prevented her from being raped.  Other legends about Agnes tell of how her attackers were blinded because the Lord so loved her and wanted to preserve her. There are those legends about Agnes that say she was tied to a stake, but the wood just wouldn’t burn.  Still there are those that tell of how she was beheaded, or stabbed in the throat.  St. Ambrose leaves aside the legends to give us one of the earliest accounts of St. Agnes’s martyrdom and stresses Agnes’ young age: she was twelve.  He also found noteworthy her steadfastness in faith and her virginity.  Agnes had no fear of death because she knew that her salvation lay in the Lord Jesus Christ.  She loved the Lord.  In him was her trust. 

We hear that echoed in the Gospel today as well.  The crowds came from all over.  They trusted that Jesus could cure every ill that they had.  Imagine that much faith, and not fully knowing that this was the Son of God. Yet, the unclean spirits knew.  We are told, “And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” He warned them sternly not to make him known.”  His time was not yet come.  They acknowledged him as Lord of all and bowed down before him.

Sometimes people find it hard to trust in the Lord.  My sister-in-law, Tanya, died of cancer eight and a half years ago.  In the last months of her life we used to discuss God.  Tanya had doubts that God was with her.  She had taken care of her mother who had Alzheimer’s.  Her mom had just died when she was diagnosed with the cancer.  She had just been reunited with her first child whom she’d given up for adoption.  She was searching for God in the shambles that she saw her life.  In some ways, perhaps this isn’t too unlike the crowds who watched Jesus climb into the boat and withdraw.  Why does he withdraw when in other places in the Bible Jesus tells us that he will never leave us?  God never leaves us.  He has many forms and we believe that he is everywhere and in everything and everybody.  God loves us.  Repeatedly he tells us that he loves us.  He also repeatedly tells us that he will never leave us.  Sometimes though we get a sense of the Lord withdrawing.  It is normal.  The saints felt that too.  It allows us to know the sweetness of the presence of the Lord.  But it also encourages us to fly to him, to have that desperate need for him that draws us to him on the cross where we hear again as often as we need, that promise of the new and everlasting covenant borne of his love and mercy.

He is with us, just as he was with St. Agnes, just as he worked within the crowds.  Let us continue in faith to turn to him and say, “Jesus, I trust in you.”