Today's material is so rich, starting with an important point from John Paul II:
"For it must be recognized that before anyone else it was God Himself, the Eternal Father, who entrusted Himself to the Virgin of Nazareth, giving her His own Son in the mystery of the Incarnation."
Boom!
The second point is that "like us, Mary needed to walk by faith while pondering in her heart."
God had never revealed to us the full blueprint of our lives. He reveals to us in increments easily digestible for us and never more than we need to know at a time. Why? Because His ways are so profound that revealing His entire plan will only manage to confuse us. Because we fail to appreciate the intricate details of a story, rushing through it carelessly, when we already know the ending; sometimes we even choose not to read it all. Because the beauty of Free Will is in being able to use it freely ... without being influenced by some sort of inception trickery.
It was the same with Mary. God's plan unfolded for her as she continued on saying "Yes" - freely.
There were two particularly troublesome verses for me in the Gospels and Fr. Michael clarifies them to be pivotal instances when God's plan for Mary was being revealed to her by her Son:
"For it must be recognized that before anyone else it was God Himself, the Eternal Father, who entrusted Himself to the Virgin of Nazareth, giving her His own Son in the mystery of the Incarnation."
Boom!
The second point is that "like us, Mary needed to walk by faith while pondering in her heart."
God had never revealed to us the full blueprint of our lives. He reveals to us in increments easily digestible for us and never more than we need to know at a time. Why? Because His ways are so profound that revealing His entire plan will only manage to confuse us. Because we fail to appreciate the intricate details of a story, rushing through it carelessly, when we already know the ending; sometimes we even choose not to read it all. Because the beauty of Free Will is in being able to use it freely ... without being influenced by some sort of inception trickery.
It was the same with Mary. God's plan unfolded for her as she continued on saying "Yes" - freely.
There were two particularly troublesome verses for me in the Gospels and Fr. Michael clarifies them to be pivotal instances when God's plan for Mary was being revealed to her by her Son:
- "Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:31-35) Jesus was not being mean or disrespectful to His mother. "He was revealing to her the new filial bond of the kingdom that goes beyond the bonds of the flesh. In other words, he was pointing out the primacy of the spirit to the flesh, the primacy of the supernatural Fatherhood of God to the natural fatherhood (or motherhood) of man ... Jesus was not rejecting her but rather preparing her."
- "While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Luke 11:27-28) Jesus was not rebuking Mary. "After all, who heard the word of God and kept it better than Mary? Nobody. Thus, Jesus is actually blessing His mother," who, if we really think about it, was his first disciple.
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