A receptive faith

To find zeal for one’s spiritual mission one must first recognize what their spiritual mission is. This can be hard to do. I found it difficult, in fact, to discern exactly what my spiritual mission might be years back. I have heard it said that if you practice earnest prayer, asking God to “send or show me” what am I to accomplish, and you practice the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, your mission would be revealed to you. Therefore, I expected my mission to be obvious, but after 25 years of child rearing with only my 11 year old left at home, I’m fairly certain now that my mission to date has been parenthood. Not much fanfare is given to a mission like this - unless you do it very poorly. Nevertheless, an extremely important mission it is to care for, teach and guide the souls God has entrusted to you.

The nature of Mary’s life in today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel is better recognized with a short prelude as to what our Holy Mother Mary has just experienced. Mary receives the Annunciation from the angel Gabriel that she will conceive by the Holy Spirit and be the mother of Jesus. The angel proclaims to Mary that Jesus “will be great and called Son of the Most High." She is told that “God will give him the throne of David.... [and] He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.” Gabriel furthers the authenticity of his message by telling Mary that her relative Elizabeth who was considered barren had conceived a son in her old age. With a receptive faith, Mary immediately believes and accepts her mission to become the Mother of God.

Now Mary, of all people, had a very valid reason to just sit back, rest and nurture the spirit-filled life within her. After all, her child is the Son of God! But not so. Mary, full of grace, knew her mission and “traveled to the hill country in haste” the Gospel tells us! Off she went, zeal for her mission taking her immediately through a difficult countryside journey and uniting her with her relative Elizabeth who proclaims Mary’s favor with God by spoken word, ‘Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb" and even with unspoken word by the infant, “the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” As for Mary, she did not know the day before the Annunciation that she would become the Mother of God. When God reveal his mission for her, however, she was spiritually ready to accept it and enthusiastically acted on it.

This Advent let us exercise our spiritual awareness to recognize the everyday and lifelong missions God sends our way that we may be ready to enthusiastically accept and act as our Holy Mother Mary did.

Author: Brad Hajovsky, Technology Department