Celebrating Mary: Our Perfect Guide to Jesus
Now imagine being the giver of this gift and, despite all the help you are willing to give to care for this treasure, the recipient takes the gift and rejects all of your guidance. How would you feel if you saw your gift slowly deteriorate and fall to pieces due to the lack of proper care? Would you be hurt? Would you be offended?
Life is just that—a precious gift from God that needs to be handled with great care, otherwise it can easily be shattered by sin. When God gives us this gift, he also gives us a choice: We can follow God’s way so that life can grow more beautiful and radiate under the protection of our heavenly Father’s love, or not. God knows taking care of this gift isn’t easy, especially when left to our own resources. That’s why God’s Word became flesh—through the faith, hope, and love of Mary, the Blessed Virgin.
Therefore, as we wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ—the first coming of our Savior—let’s also renew our desire and prepare ourselves for the Second Coming of Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that will lead us to heaven. To do so, let’s reach out to Mary, our Blessed Mother, who is our perfect guide to Jesus. Our Lady, in all humility, shows us how to allow holiness into our lives—God’s gift to us—during this season of Advent.
Consent to God
“The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.…For nothing will be impossible for God,” said the archangel to Mary at the annunciation (Luke 1:35, 37). Mary’s reply: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). With our Lady’s consent to heaven’s Almighty, the Holy Spirit and the Son of God nestled within Mary. Then, and for her entire life on earth, Mary lived in perfect unity with the Holy Trinity.
When we embrace Mary, we open ourselves to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Like Mary, we can live in unity with the Holy Trinity by giving our consent to be used as God’s instruments of loving mercy in our world. Our consent is more than a verbal affirmation of believing in God; it is an offering of our body, mind, and soul to God’s will. Such was the offering of Mary that brought Jesus into the world for our salvation.
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