Whose Mother?

Daughter of God the Father,
Mother of God the Son,
Spouse of God the Holy Spirit

How can we choose to think she could be just any woman? That there is nothing that makes her so special that she deserves more honor then any other woman in history?
There has never been and never will be again, any one person who can hold those three titles. As a matter of fact, two of those titles belong singularly, in all time, to one woman, and no other.

As a child of God, we feel privileged to speak directly to God the Father and we know He loves us and has a special place in His heart for each and every one of us. He made us all unique but still in His image and likeness. If His heart swells for us, how much does His heart swell for the woman who said yes, in her free will, to her part in His plan of salvation for us?

As an adopted brother or sister of Christ through baptism, we know when we speak to Him, He hears us and is attentive to us. How much more attentive do you think He is to His mother? The woman whose fiat gave Him his humanity. The woman who nursed our, (and her’s) Lord and Savior at her breast, who changed His dirty diapers, who wiped His skinned knees and kissed His boo-boos. The woman who taught Him how to speak, how to walk, how to play games. The woman who wiped his snotty nose when He had a cold, and laughed with Him when He squealed in joy at new discoveries! Even though those discoveries were of His own creation!

I wonder if they spent time in the fields, picking flowers and making crowns from those flowers. If the played hide and go seek? Perhaps tag? Peek-a-boo? Do we remember that Jesus did have a childhood? That He, in order to experience everything we do, had to be helpless, had to grow and learn just like each and every one of us!

This is the woman who told Him at 12 years old, not yet, (Luke 2:42 – 52),  and at 30, to get going, (John 2:1-12).

Imagine, this is the woman who first felt the lifeblood of Jesus flow in her womb and also felt the lifeblood leave Him as she stood at the foot of His Cross.

So do you think perhaps, just perhaps, He has a special place in His Heart for her? And perhaps, He does want us to know her? The more you know the Mother, the more you will know the Son. And I do believe her intercession for us with her Son goes much farther than our prayers alone goes. As a mother, He trusts she will only request that He grant what is best for her children (that is every one of us who claim to be Christian, whether we honor Mary or not.)

Many of us feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Many, are filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues, or are slayed in the Spirit. But there is not one of us who will ever be filled with the Holy Spirit the way that Mary was, or will the fruit of our accepting of the Holy Spirit moving in our life compare to the fruit that Mary bore from the Spirit. Mary is the eternal spouse of the Holy Spirit. He did not accept her fiat, use her until He was done with her and then leave her. He has remained with her, as her spouse, forever, into eternity, because He has never been and never will be done with her.

In Matthew 7:16 – 20, Jesus tells us you will know a good tree by its’ fruit. Look at the Fruit that the tree of Mary bore – the Son of God made flesh! Is there any better fruit?! How can we hold in high esteem Moses, Abraham, Sarah, Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and ignore and even brush aside Mary, the Mother of God, like she is any other woman?

Tomorrow we begin Advent, our journey to the Nativity of Jesus Christ. Perhaps as we make this journey over the next 4 weeks we can consider Mary’s role, try to accept her as your mother. Ask her to show you her picture album of her Son. Ask her to help you know and love her Son even more.

And by accident, you might even meet Joseph along the way, an ordinary man whose yes led him to become and be an extra-ordinary man!