The season of Lent is a time
to reflect on God’s work in our lives and in the lives of saints of the past. I
invite you to look at 6 women who can show us lives filled with Faith, Hope,
and Love, over the next few weeks. These thoughts are based on a retreat I led
the first weekend in Lent. We start with Mary of Nazareth, whose ‘yes’ to God
set in motion the Incarnation.
As an unwed teenager, her
‘let it be according to your word’, set in motion the fulfillment of the
Incarnation. I like the image of Annunciation
by John Collier. It shows Mary as a modern teen, engrossed in a book/Bible (?)
when Gabriel approaches her. I like it because it reminds me of her youth, and
yet her openness to change, which is something we can learn again and again
from the youth in our lives. In her modern dress, she brings the reality of her
call into my day-to-day life. God comes to each of us with a call to some sort
of ministry-perhaps not as dramatically as Gabriel showing up on the doorstep,
but make no mistake, you and I are called to ministry. When we say ‘yes’ to
God, to living out the Great Commandment in faith, hope, and love, we are
bringing about further incarnation (small ‘I’) in the world.
In my book Mary My Love, which is about Mary &
Joseph and the Nativity from Joseph’s point of view, Mary has to live with
Joseph’s initial doubt and the difficulties of traveling to Bethlehem and then
the flight to Egypt and later losing Jesus in the temple as a teenager. Like
us, the day-to-day cooking, cleaning, and caring for her family probably made
the visit of the angel seem like a distant memory. Like us she had to move
forward making decisions about what to cook for dinner, how to feed and clothe
a growing baby. Those daily tasks can seem unimportant in the call to move the
Kingdom down the road. Her choices, and ours, in the little and big things do
have great impact. When we grumble through our day at work or at home it leaves
a trail of dis-ease. When we look for the good and offer faith, hope, and love,
we are sharing the Kingdom whether it’s just with a grumpy store clerk or a
hyper grandchild.
When bad things happen, it
can be hard to see God’s presence. Mary’s faith assured her that God is greater
than the circumstances of a paranoid leader slaughtering potential rivals, or a
dangerous trek across the desert as refugees. We are still confronted by the
choices of the powerful to destroy the weaker. Scenes like Aleppo, and so many
other places haunt our news, even today. Anger and violence in our streets and
around the world assault our security. Fear can steal our faith. However, our
faith response matters. It can be hard to find and articulate and live a life
that is witness to the One who is greater than evil. In the end, though, that
is our call and our ministry.
And it’s not just the overt
violence of the powerful that can try our faith. Sometimes it is the
circumstances of our own lives that make it hard to find faith. One time in my
life when my faith was tried was when I thought I had life all figured out. I
was sure that my calling was to be a Sunday School teacher. Then, under ‘new
management’, I was asked to relinquish my position as DRE. That struck at the
core of who I thought I was, and what I thought I was called to do.
I fully relate to the
Hillary Scott song Thy Will She sings
“I’m so confused. I know I heard you loud and clear. So, I followed through
Somehow I ended up here… I may never understand That my broken heart is a part
of your plan.”
For Hillary and for me, it
is true that “When I try to pray All I got is hurt and these four words: Thy
will be done.” I had a long stretch of struggle before I could see that there
was good to be found. And from that time, I started to write. Through it all I
had to keep trying to as the song says, “Remember that you’re God And I am not.”
Through the day-to-day living, we have to have faith that God, as Hillary Scott
sings “I know you see me, I know you hear me, Lord Your plans are for me,
Goodness you have in store.”
Mary had an angel…Most of us
try to live lives of Faith, trusting that we are doing the right thing, like
Thomas Merton most of us pray at least from time to time.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I
am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it
will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am
following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe
that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that
desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from
that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I
may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are
ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone
We have to
live on our faith and act out of that faith even if we don’t quite know where
we are going or what we are supposed to do. Where is God calling you to act
this Lent?
Next week we’ll
look at Miryam (Mary) of Magdala who did not have any angel. She had 7 demons
according to the scriptures.
