“And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmade’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm; dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, but the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” Luke 1: 46-55
When meditating upon the second decade of the Joyful Mysteries, in which Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth and proclaims God’s glory, I am typically inclined to view Mary’s actions as an act of pure charity, inspired by the Holy Spirit who filled her with His love when conceiving the Son of God within her womb. She was so filled with love that she could not contain it within herself and was driven as if by some compulsion to leave immediately and find someone to serve. I believe this to be true, but I have lately been looking at Mary’s actions through a different lens, which has helped me relate to the mystery in a deeper way.
Mary is a young girl who is suddenly blessed with the gift of life, and not just any life, but the life of the Author of Life. She is betrothed to Joseph but their marriage is not yet complete, and the divine revelation of the origin of life within her is revealed to nobody but herself. Although she consented to God’s will, she had to have been scared. She is human, after all. Sinless, but still human. She was not free from the worries and anxieties that plague the rest of us, and therefore, if I place myself in her shoes, I feel overwhelmed at the magnitude of the situation, and all the unanswered questions that it presents. How will my family react? Will they believe me, or assume I’ve conceived a child in the sin of premarital relations? What will Joseph think? Will he divorce me? What will my village think of me? Will I be shamed by them; will they look at me with judgmental disdain? How will I take care of this child if all my family disowns me and Joseph refuses to take me into his home?
All these things must have been running through Mary’s young mind, and being human, she must have felt a level of anxiety that threatened to crush her. Full of the Holy Spirit, but also full of worry and stress, she immediately set out to do something we can all relate to; she sought the comfort and counsel of a beloved elder who would be able to relate to and sympathize with her situation.
She set out to visit her older cousin, Elizabeth, who, not long before, had also been blessed to conceive a child through divine intervention. Elizabeth had been barren, but an Angel of the Lord announced to her husband that she would conceive and bare a son. Mary knew this. Just like we seek help and wisdom from our friends and family members, so too did Mary seek the wisdom and comfort of her cousin. She wanted to be near the one person who could relate intimately to the situation she found herself in; the one person who was most likely to believe that the child in her womb was placed there by God.
During the journey from her home to the home of Elizabeth, Mary did something else we can relate to. She needed comfort and reassurance that God would guide her through the challenging times ahead. That God would not abandon her in her times of need. That God would keep his promise. And so, as she journeyed, she read and meditated on all the sacred scripture passages in which God fulfilled his promises to help those who were faithful to him. Not only that, but she read specifically from the examples of faithful women who came before her.
We know this because when she arrived at the home of her cousin, she immediately begins repeating scripture passages in the form of the Canticle of Mary, also known as the Magnificat. Why did she speak using the words spoken by Naomi in the book of Ruth, or Hannah from the book of Samuel, or Judith, Esther, and the psalms? These were the words that came from her lips because they were still fresh on her mind. She spent the whole journey seeking comfort in God’s unrelenting faithfulness.
I can relate to this, in that anytime I feel overwhelmed with anxiety and worry, I instinctively turn to the Psalms for comfort. Look at the Psalms, they are the outpouring of anguished hearts. They are the cries of the suffering in their times of need. They are the fruit of the faithful seeking the help of their God.
Mary’s act of charity towards her neighbor Elizabeth is a beautiful example for all to follow, not because Mary was so good and holy that she only ever thought of others. Mary was good and holy, but just like all the rest of us, her goodness and holiness came from God. Charity is a divine virtue, one that is reserved for God himself, and that he bestows upon us as he sees fit. Mary surrendered her will to the will of God, and in turn, God used her worry and anxiety as a vehicle to pour out his Charity upon others.
It is easy for us to look back upon this moment in time, being intimately familiar with how Mary’s life unfolds, and forget that she did not have the gift of foresight; she did not know what her future held. She did not know how her story would end.
It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that Mary saw her own life in the same way we see her life now. It is easy to disregard her human nature. Easy to look at the birth of Jesus in light of his resurrection, forgetting that Mary was not yet privy to that information. It is easy to forget that all the thoughts, concerns, worries, frustrations, questions, and anxieties that fill our minds also filled the mind of Mary. It is easy to forget how much we have in common with her.
What I learn from Mary’s example is this: If we surrender our worries and cares to God, God will use us to care for others. It might not be clear in the moment how God is using us, but we can rest assured that his hand is at work in our lives, and that our obedience to his divine will, our ‘fiat’, will be looked upon by him with merciful charity, especially in the moments when we feel the most afraid.
Written by: Matthew Giardina