For
the eternal Father in heaven to choose a human being, Mary, to be so
instrumental in God coming among us is truly amazing. If God gave
Mary such an extraordinary role and honour, then it makes sense that
we should also give Our Lady extraordinary honour. God asked her to
be the instrument through which Jesus would come into the world. He
didn’t force her, He asked her. That also gives us an idea of how
God respects us as human beings. He doesn’t force things on us. He
invites us to follow his way, the way that leads to life, but He lets
us choose it or reject it. What could be a more wonderful way to
begin the new year than by giving honour to that same woman to whom
He entrusted so much.
When
the angel Gabriel came and told Mary that God was asking her to
become the Mother of Jesus, the first words of the angel were: ‘Mary,
do not be afraid, you have won God’s favour.’ What the
angel then said to Mary might be summed up in a different way.
The Lord was saying something quite startling to Our Lady: ‘Mary do
not be afraid... God is asking you to put aside all your plans
for the future and do his will instead. Will you accept?’
This is what the angel was saying to her, but he started it off with
‘Mary do not be afraid.’ ‘God knows what he is doing.’
No
doubt all of us have had various ideas as to what we hoped our lives
might involve; different plans and indeed often very good plans.
I believe that one of the greatest challenges facing anyone who tries
to be faithful to God, as most of us do, is when God dramatically
changes what we thought He was going to do. God asks us, ‘Will
you leave aside all your plans for serving me, and take on my ones
instead?’ The thing is we probably weren’t even aware that
we had our own fairly definite plans, until He asked us to give them
up, by making our lives take all kinds of unexpected turns. And
then what did actually happen may have turned out to be quite
disappointing. ‘I had hoped it would be much more.’
Think of the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after
the resurrection when they meet Jesus but don’t recognise him: ‘Our
own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free’
(Luke 24.21). ‘We are so disappointed.’ What must Our
Lady have been thinking as she watched Jesus being tortured and
suffer such a brutal death? What about all the promises of the
prophets and the angel? Now he was dead.
The
plans we had may have been really excellent ones. I have no
doubt that Our Lady probably had really beautiful plans as to how she
would serve the Lord, but the Lord may ask us at some stage, ‘Will
you follow my plans for you?’ ‘Are you prepared to
give up this brilliant work that you are doing at the moment, because
I have a different one?’ ‘Are you prepared to accept this
disappointment in your family, or your marriage?’ I think
that this can be a key moment in anyone’s life. Two things
can happen from it. We can accept it in faith and go with it,
thereby opening the door to allow Jesus to transform us. Or we
can fight it and resent the fact that ‘It all went wrong for us’,
which may lead us to great bitterness.
If
we really remain open to accept what God asks, to the many twists and
turns that God takes us through, He will bring the greatest good out
of our life, because He will transform us through these struggles.
This is really the only thing that is important, that we allow God to
transform us. God’s purpose for us is to fill us completely
with himself, to unite us to himself at a far deeper level than we
may have ever imagined was even possible and then use us a hundred
times more effectively in the world, but God asks for our openness,
our consent.
To
sum up: If we are open to following God, He may continually ask
us to take different directions, often having to let go of plans or
ideas that we thought were very good. The more open we are, the
more quickly the Lord can transform us within. So if you do
find yourself thinking sometimes, ‘Everything seems to have gone
wrong. I never managed to do this or that,’ remember that if
you just stay open and allow the Lord to guide you, then not only
have your plans not been wasted, but in fact you have allowed the
Lord to do far more in you than you might have imagined. ‘Mary,
do not be afraid.’
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