“Let it be to me according to your word.” (Lc 1:38)
As I conclude this reflection on August 15, I cannot and will not pass by our dear Mother of God, Mary, without thinking of her and writing a few words.
How lovingly our Heavenly Father must have looked upon the one He chose to be the mother of His Son—a holy and pure virgin! As we know from the teaching of the Church, she was exempt from original sin (the Immaculate Conception), just like the woman in Paradise whom we know as Eve.
Without a doubt, our Heavenly Father’s gaze was fixed on Mary with tenderness. Unlike Eve in Paradise, who allowed herself to be tempted into disobedience by the devil in the form of the serpent, Mary responded with great love to God’s message, which the Heavenly Father had the Archangel Gabriel deliver to her.
With this simple “yes” from the Virgin to God’s will, our Father was able to bring to fruition the plan of salvation born of His infinite love. An infinitely important “yes”! It was a “yes” for all of us who lost Paradise as a result of disobedience. Now God could send us the “new Adam,” who atoned for the sin of the first Adam—our Lord Jesus Christ!
And Mary? She remained faithful to God’s will, even amid great suffering, all the way to her Son’s crucifixion. Time and again she spoke this “yes” as a loving and obedient daughter of the Heavenly Father.
Our Father gives her to us as the most loving mother. Thus our Father’s gaze always rests upon her, since she welcomed Him in, and upon us when we grant Him entry—so that the Son of God may be carried out into this world through our lives as well!
What a profound mystery of love!