How Do You Think of Mary?

 What are some of the things you know or remember about the Blessed Mother?

 These are some of the things that have been mentioned when I asked this question to different groups this week:

 Our Lady of Guadalupe

Jesus' mom

married to Joseph

visited by angels

impetus for Jesus' first miracle at wedding feast at Cana

intercessor for us with the Divine

a woman who understands other women's concerns

a woman who is confident

 To all this I would add that Mary can be seen as a strong, grounded, self aware woman. One who is, as one author states: "empty of arrogance and selfishness, and therefore open and oriented towards the Divine in her midst".

 When we look at all the many ways we have learned about the Blessed Mother in our past, it can be both confusing and overwhelming. It seems like each nation has a particular devotion to Mary under a different honorific title. Her appearances all over the globe are wonderful and opportunities to grow in faith and holiness for us. Her messages throughout the ages from Cana to today are constant: Listen to her son, look to her son, pray for peace. But to see her only in this light is often misunderstood by others outside our faith, they perceive us as worshipping Mary, as if she were another Divine being, perhaps the feminine face of God.

 There's so much more to how we understand Mary.

We believe Mary was utterly, fully and wonderfully human and it is in her humanity that she is blessed and we find our connection to her. 

 The story of the Visitation is a wonderful example of the friendship and love between two cousins, uniquely bonded by very unexpected circumstances. One young unmarried woman and one older well past child bearing years, both suddenly surprisingly blessed by God with pregnancies that will change the course of human history: John and Jesus. When we read between the lines in Luke, we see the story of the love and care these cousins have for one another. We know now that they depend on each other at this most critical moment of their lives for support, and understanding, for friendship and comfort. Who else could possibly know what each of them were going through but the other?

 Our own lives can get very complicated, can't they? We can see how crazy things can become just watching some of our TV shows: we might identify with "Hoarders" and then need someone like Marie Kondo to help us let go of stuff...she's made a fortune teaching people how to 'declutter' their lives!

 Mary can teach us how to declutter spiritually can't she?

If we keep Jesus in the center of our lives, and choose only those things and people that connect us to Jesus, then our lives are pretty focused, pretty simple, pretty peaceful. Then our hearts have a space in them to look for and recognize the divine around every corner.

 So much of our adult faith life can be reflected in our ability to recognize the divine. Having recently taken over the parish Instagram account, I find myself every morning actively looking for some photo that calls me to a deeper sense of prayer. Who would have imagined that Instagram would be a source of prayer? But that's what I mean...if, like Mary, we empty a space in our hearts-then there's room for the Divine to take root, be nurtured and grow within us. If we are open to looking for God, then we will eventually be able to see God everywhere. Mary can teach us to see:

 God in the set of empty swings in the park, that invite us to sit and relax a bit

God in the parent holding the hand of their little one, reminding us of the divine's care for us

God in the awesome beauty of nature all around us

God in the tears of a loved one

God in the laughter of a friend fighting cancer

God in the silly moments of a work day that make you smile

God is all around us, if we have the eyes to see

 Mary, our strong, capable, incredibly self aware Mother of God, Mary "untie-r of knots", release us from our anxieties,  Mary -one who brings God to us, Pray with us, pray for us, and help us be more like you, grant us the grace to see our God around every corner.

Living Your Faith-Simple? Tough? How Difficult is this for YOU?

 In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, which we'll hear this weekend, we are reminded that we are to live in such a way as to be true to our baptismal call in thought word and deed.

Let's remind ourselves that at our baptism we were called as "Priest, Prophet and King/Queen" to be loving and humble servants of God. We are called through those roles to share our faith, to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God, as the prophet Micah teaches us. We do this every time we bring justice, love and tenderness into our world by our actions. We know that this call to King/Queen-ship is a call to humble service to our neighbors. None of this is easy.

Often times I think that living our Christian faith is a rather difficult commitment to make. It means being conscious and thoughtful in all our actions, in all our words. All the time.

On the other hand, what I hear in this letter seems pretty simple. Imitate God. The reading spells it out pretty clearly: anything like bitterness, fury, malice and anger should not be a part of our lives. I will say that as an Italian who can be rather loud when excited, I might take issue with the "shouting" example...but for the most part we are to be compassionate, loving, forgiving and kind.

On second glance, maybe not so simple. Of course we want to be all those good and virtuous things, but sometimes, many times, it can be very hard to be that good all the time!  We might be tempted to give up before we even start!

 Who do you believe God to be? What is your picture of the Divine? Some of us were raised with a rather strict and forbidding image of a creator who was somehow always looking to grade us on our behavior. There was a divine checklist with our name on it, and we tried really hard not to have too many marks against us. Jesus' whole life he tried to show us a different image of his abba, his father...as one who loved us and wanted the best for us.

 So which image do you choose to hold onto? Because the image you choose will determine your behavior won't it? If we're called to imitate God's behavior, then it's important to know how we think God acts so we can decide on our behavior.

 Is your God angry, and mean and waiting to catch you when you make a mistake? Does your God take delight in punishing you?

 Or, as we see in the Christian Scriptures over and over again, is your idea of God that of a loving parent, one who is caring and compassionate, one who teaches and encourages, one who roots for you- rejoicing in your successes and gently comforting you in your times of loss or failure?

 "Be imitators of God", "Live in love" ... on my good days of course I want to behave like this! Even on my bad days, I want this to be my vision of how I want to live my life. We want to be, as John has reminded us these few weeks, Bread for others, so that all may be fed on and full of the best of God's love and care.

 Simply put, when Jesus said he was "living bread" he was offering us a true and real connection to our God. In accepting, in eating this bread from heaven, we become what we take into our very selves. We become imitators of God. We become people who live in love.

 Let's get it together, let’s start acting like we love one another!