Sometimes, driven by the enthusiasm of the nativity of
our Lord Jesus, and in the trouble to give him all the attention and worship he
deserves, we forget the role of his mother, Mary of Nazareth, the most
important instrument by which the miracle of the incarnation took place.
All the reliable information we have from our Lord’s life,
it is contained only in the New Testament, and most importantly, in the four
Gospels that conform his biography
These four biographies were written by people who were
not personal witnesses of the whole life of our Lord (Luke 1:1-4). At its best,
they are attributed to two members of his Twelve Apostles, and two of their immediate
disciples. All the information they gathered about the life of Jesus up to his
adult public life, it must have eventually come from Joseph and Mary’s personal
testimony and stories. And from these, some of them, like the annunciation,
were only known by Saint Mary alone.
(Luke 1:26-38).
As we know from Scripture, all the great members of our
story of salvation, were chosen before they were even made for the roles they
were eventually called to. Such were the cases we know of Jeremiah, John the
Baptists and Saint Paul (Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:13-15; Galatians 1:15). It would be
naïve to think that Mary was not also chosen and conditioned for the greatest
role in the universe, to be the mother of our Saviour.
However, even after being elected and conditioned, this
mission was not forced on her. Mary preserved always her free will, and in control
of that free will, she accepted the role of being made the mother of the Son of
God, the Messiah and our Saviour, and all the responsibilities it included
(Luke 1:38). We do not know for certain how old Saint Mary was when she was
told of the incarnation, but we know that she blindly accepted it, openly
declaring her faith and submission to the will of YHWH.
She suffered adversity and risked of her life while
protecting her son. She delivered our Lord in a stable in the middle of a trip (Luke
2:1-7) and avoided being killed by King Herod the Great by running away to a
foreign country (Matthew 2:13).
She breasts fed our Lord and nurtured him, and protected
him from all dangers during his early years; and most probably she taught him
his first prayers and to keep the Sabbath.
But not only that, but she accompanied her son in his
public life, and with great pain, she witnessed his trial and crucifixion,
being totally impotent to stop it
(John 19:26).
Saint Mary of Nazareth fulfilled faithfully the greatest
mission given to a human being, to be the Mother of the Saviour of humanity,
who in his humanity took from her chromosomes. A mission unique to the story of
the universe, unrepeatable, and unequal to any other.
For this reason, being filled by the Holy Spirit, Mary prophesied
about herself:
“For behold, from now on all generations will
call me blessed”
Luke 1:48
Omar Flores.
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