C. Dolci, Madonna con Bambino (1570), oil on canvas,
Gallerie degli Uffizi (Florence)
...
Mary was a Jewish girl, in the
heart of the Jewish tradition that the will of God must be the driving force of
her life. Her reaction to the angel, “Let it be done unto me according to God's
will,” demonstrates this. She was the perfect person to be the mother of God.
She continually turned to the Lord, making God present not only physically, at
Bethlehem, but spiritually wherever she was. To meet her would be to understand the quality of love the
Lord was bringing to the world. The paintings and statues of Mary that I like
best are those that depict her as a young mother, holding up her baby for him
to bless the world. As a man, I
can never fathom what it must be like to hold in your arms the child that lived
inside you for nine months. Does a
mother see her husband, the baby’s father, in the infant? Does she see herself? I’m sure she see a unique individual
that came from her yet is not her. A mother must experience love of a different
type than she ever has experienced before. She also must experience love to a
greater degree than she ever fathomed she could have. What must have it been like for Mary to hold Jesus? Did she see herself? Did she see her family traits, her
father’s eyes, her Uncle Solomon’s cleft chin? Did she see the baby’s Eternal Father, the First Person of
the Trinity? Did Mary see in Jesus the Mercy of God, the Peace of God, the
Compassion of God for his people, a people that struggled to get by in the
darkness of a world that had rejected its Creator? How much did Mary love this
child? Certainly, she loved him as much as every mother loves her child. But she must have loved him even more
than this. She must have loved
this child with, as the preface for Advent says, a love beyond all telling. She
loved the child created within her, and she loved the Creator whom the child
perfectly reflected. It is reasonable to depict Mary holding the child up for
him to bless the world, to bless us. Her resolve to fulfill God’s plan for her
and for all people resulted in our Savior becoming one of us. Mary is the only person in scripture to
be present in every aspect of Jesus’ life--from his birth to his death. She is always there, saying to us: Look
here is your Savior, my son. Just as Mary was resolved to make God present in
the world through her faith and obedience, we are called to make God present to
the world. Even though the
beginning of the Church year is the first Sunday of Advent, and even though we
concentrate during Lent on those areas of our lives that need spiritual refining,
it is still proper for us to consider New Year's resolutions regarding our
faith. It is proper for each of us to consider, What do I need to do to
manifest a clearer presence of the Lord in the world. How can I utilize my own
unique reflection of God, my own personality, in such a way that I, like Mary,
can bring God to others? This is a good time of year to consider methods of
fulfilling our obligations as Christians, the responsibility we took on when we
were baptized, to make Jesus present to the world. Joseph and Mary pondered in
the hearts the mysteries of the presence of the Lord. You and I need to begin this year considering the mystery of
Jesus’s presence in our lives. We
need to search for ways to bring this presence to others. Like Mary, we have to
hold Jesus up to a world that seeks His blessing, that yearns for His salvation
• AE
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