EDante. Tharae, Northeast Thailand
We believe that a Christian is primarily somebody who believes in God. So one would know a Christian by his Faith. Now, about the Blessed Virgin Mary, I want to say that she is the one who perfectly believes in God. The Catholic Church teaches us that just as Mary is the Mother of love and hope, so she is also the Mother of Faith. Because of that the opening of the Year of Faith happened at the Feast of Mary, Most Holy, Mother of God, on 11 October 2012. At that same day, Pope Benedict entrusted the Year of Faith to her. What does that mean? It means that she is our model of faith and she is ready to support us in living out fully the Year of Faith. You may ask why the church calls Mother Mary the Mother of Faith? Well, we can simply read directly the Holy Bible. It does not take much to recognize Mary as our model of faith. It all begins, of course, at the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary. The Angel said that the Child to be born of her was to be the Messiah, was to be the Son of God. That is the Gospel that was proclaimed to Mary. And Mary believed the Gospel. Mary was the first Christian believer because she accepted the Gospel as it was presented to her. Then, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. The Church believes that Mary here was following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and she believed. It was her faith that led her to visit and assist her cousin Elizabeth. And this is what a Christian should be – always ready to listen and obey the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and help people in need. When Mary entered Elizabeth’s house, as you knew, at the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth then said “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child in your womb!” Finally, Elizabeth said “And blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled!” You see Elizabeth understood that something wonderful had happened in Mary’s life. She recognized Mary as blessed because Mary had faith in what God had spoken to her through the Angel Gabriel. Of course, Mary’s response was the Magnificat – “My soul magnifies the Lord, and My spirit rejoices in God, My Saviour”. For nine months, Mary carried Jesus in Her womb. Any pregnant mother naturally tends to think a lot about the child that she is bearing. In the case of our Mother Mary, she was contemplating on her first Child, Jesus. Jesus is the focal point of everything that she thinks of. Jesus was the center of her life. This is how faith looks like. It is a life centered in God. After nine months, Jesus was born, and Mary now not only thought of Him, worshipped Him, but now She could hold Him in Her hands, carry Him, She could see Him, She could hear His cries. Mary did not understand everything about Her Son. When Jesus was lost in the temple, she asked Him, “Son, why have you done this to us?” Mary was living in faith as we all are living in faith. There were things she didn’t understand – that is part of a life of faith. But the Holy Spirit inspired Mary so that she took into her heart what Jesus said even when she did not understand it, and she meditated on it. The time came when Jesus must leave Mother Mary to go about the preaching of the Gospel to others. That must have been a very painful time for Mary. But she responded well by saying “Let it be done according to Thy Word”. This is God’s will, and this Mary accepted without resistance, painful as it was. Those are the things about the faith of Mary that we can find as we read the bible. Even with these few passages in the bible, it is clear that Mother Mary is indeed a model of faith, and thus she is called the Mother of Faith. I would like to conclude with what Saint Augustine says about the Blessed Mother Mary. Saint Augustine said "It was Mary's faith that opened heaven to men when she agreed to become the mother of Jesus”. Comments are closed.
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