"BEHOLD, I AM THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD”
St. Maximilian Kolbe’s consecration to Jesus through Mary begins: “Oh Immaculata…God has willed to entrust the entire order of Mercy to you.” Today we celebrate the Immaculata, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and we witness the exact moment God entrusts the Savior of the World to her.
I never tire of pondering how Mary was created without original sin, yet had the same free will as you and me, but still always chose obedience. Mary’s “yes” was so total and complete that she didn’t just consent, she identified herself as God’s slave. Her obedience echoes in her footsteps through the hill country where she runs in haste to serve her cousin Elizabeth. Her fiat is magnified when she intercedes for the newlyweds at Cana and inspires the first disciples to do whatever Jesus tells them. Mary resounds her yes by adhering to the Law when she offers Jesus in the temple. Her faithfulness permeates the depths of my soul when I imagine how the lance must have pierced her heart as she watched it enter the side of her Son, already dead on the cross. And after all she suffered, Mary still prayed for 9 days for God to send the Holy Spirit to help all of humanity know and follow Jesus!
I thank God for the gift of the Immaculata, as a model and a mother, because of the ways her life glorified God like no other human being. I pray for a heart like Mary’s - full of childlike obedience, boundless charity, unwavering faith and joyful hope! A heart so perfectly united with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that, like Mary, my will would be at one with the Will of God.
“O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” How does Mary’s example of obedience inspire me to greater union with the Will of God for my life? How am I being invited to share the graces that God has entrusted to me?
Martin Vitorino