All of this is what Mary went through to give
Christ to the world: pregnancy by the
Holy Spirit, gestation of that into a child in side of her; excruciating pain
in birthing that to the outside; nurturing that new life into adulthood; and
pondering, painfully letting go so that this new life can be its own, not
hers. When the woman in the crowd told
Jesus, You must have had a
wonderful mother!, his answer had
precisely this in mind. Mary was a
wonderful mother, but in ways that went far beyond the simple fact of
motherhood. She heard the word of God
and kept it. That obedience, more than biological motherhood, gave both an
infant Jesus and an adult Christ to the world.
And in this, Mary wants imitation, not
admiration. Our task too is to give
birth to Christ. Mary is the paradigm
for doing that. From her we get the
pattern: Let the word of God take root
and make you pregnant; gestate that by giving it the nourishing sustenance of
your own life; submit to the pain that is demanded for it to be born to the
outside; then spend years coaxing it from infancy to adulthood; and finally,
during and after all of this, do some pondering, accept the pain of not
understanding and of letting go.
--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, O.M.I
Image source: Lougantina, The Virgin Pregnant
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