A Mother's Love

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation. Situated nine months before the birth of Christ, we hear the readings of Luke’s Gospel where the angel appears to Mary, who becoming overshadowed by the Power of the Holy Spirit, becomes impregnated with the Word—the bearer of God’s Son (Luke 1:26-38).

I was recently at a retreat where the question was asked, “When was Mary closer to Jesus, when He walked on earth or when she received Him in the Eucharist?” What an appropriate question to ponder as we approach Holy Week, for I am always drawn to the figure of our Blessed Mother as the events unfold around her Beloved Son.

The angel’s watchwords: “Be not afraid” must have echoed through her mind and heart a million times. How could her Son go from being triumphantly honored in the streets of Jerusalem with loud “Hosannas!!” to cries of “Crucify Him, Crucify Him”? Where did she find the strength knowing her precious Child was being tried and beaten? What were His crimes? Teaching people how to love as God loves? What love must have had her anchored to the foot of the cross, unwilling to let her Son suffer alone? When I think of the Passion of Christ, I cannot help but be inspired by Mary—her strength, her conviction, her faith, and her love of God.

Where did this love come from? It goes back to my question and then extends to our love for Christ and how we are called to live as disciples. When a mother is with child, she feels every movement, every flutter. Her blood is her child’s. Her food and her drink is a shared offering with the life she carries within. Her whole life changes. Her love for what is not seen, not held, is immense. She is willing to give her all—her very life, for the life within--the one she cannot yet see or hold.

When Mary received Jesus in the Eucharist, she held her Most Precious Son in the most intimate of ways—from within. The co-mingling of their very being was once again, never to be parted. No man could separate her from her Son—not even death could take Him away from her. While He walked the earth, from childhood through His adult life, Mary could hug Him, feed and tend to Him, and watch His every movement, but the intimacy of the Mother and Child were never closer than prior to His birth—when the two were one in the great mystery of life.

We too share in this intimacy each time we receive the Eucharist. No one can ever separate us from Christ if we truly believe that He lives in us, Body, Mind, Soul, and Divinity. The challenge for us is that we, just like Mary, cannot hold Christ within forever. We must ‘give birth’ to the reality of the Lord in our lives. Like Mary, that task is not always easy—in fact—at times it may come at a great price. But our hope is in that despite the cost, nothing can separate us from the One who loves us so dearly.

Be not afraid! The world needs to hear the Good News that “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that we might not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16)! May we also lift up our prayers of thanksgiving to the Blessed Mother, who through her great love for us, said her “Yes” to the Lord’s invitation, thus giving us the gift of life eternal!