Advent Reflection 1: The Mothers of Christ

Beverly Hagar-Schmerse says:

I loved your question! Great meditation which fits with today’s Gospel reading about the unfaithful steward…as I have been meditating about this I realized how surrendering one’s whole past, present, and future to God is a difficult thing for us to do…we always want to hang onto some little bits and pieces of who we are for ourselves…we think God surely doesn’t want this…yes, yes He does…He wants our all…and that is not easy to do…that means we must surrender all to God, and just BE!! That much trust requires turning over to God daily everything…The morning offering says it well…O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer You my prayers, works,
joys and sufferings
of this day for all the intentions
of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world,
in reparation for my sins,
for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,
and in particularfor the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.

Avila says:

I wonder whether the references to these ladies somehow points to Jesus. For example Tamar was the innocent victim of the sinfulness of brutal men. Jesus was also the victim of sinful brutal men, unlike Tamar, He was the willing victim and his Fiat to God echoes Mary’s Fiat. He reached out to the humiliated, suffering, outsiders and rejected people, and in turn He was humiliated, suffered, became the rejected and the outsider from the moment the flogging started to his last breath on the cross. If this part of the story starts with these four ladies, is lived in the life, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven of Jesus, is it is still ongoing?

By ongoing, I mean in the sense that He is still rejected, individuals still mock Him, He is locked out of lives and suffers seeing souls flee from Him. Yet, Jesus did not reject those responsible for His death and still welcomes those who today continue to call for His death from history, hearts and lives.

The reflection on who are the mothers in our lives, reminds me that I have never given birth, fostered or adopted a child but I must be like a mother. I have the role of being a mother to my mother, arranging her care, trying to understand words only she understands and continuously trying to make sure that she never forgets that she is still loved, valued and wanted. In other ways, I feel that I can be a hidden mother through the gift of giving, which on its own is ineffective, but joined to all the other giving, enables the Body of Christ to offer the rejected and abandoned value and love.

Marianne says:

Good points for meditation, Thomas. We are called to see Christ in those we meet. I had an interesting experience recently which coincidentally followed the session on The Visitation in “The Biblical Walk With the Blessed Mother” study. My coworker is pregnant with her fifth child. She has four daughters already, and now she is having a son. On Monday morning she mentioned that she went to church the day before (which I don’t think she does too often). She was upset because the baby was kicking up a storm like she had never felt before. He kept kicking her and it didn’t stop till after she left the church. She said she didn’t know what was wrong. I told her, “nothing’s wrong… your baby is leaping for joy in your womb because he knows he was in the presence of Jesus. Just like when John the Baptist leaped in Elizabeth’s womb.” I showed her the passage in the bible. I said, “there’s nothing wrong… your baby is BLESSED.” This young woman was stunned speechless.

I enjoyed the Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother. These past weeks have been a time of both joys and challenges for me, and I’m grateful for her presence in my home and in my heart. One of the questions asked us to write down what aspects of Mary’s faith inspired us. I read it aloud in class. And my facilitator suggested that I print it out and say it as prayer, which I did. Here it is…

Dear Mary, I have always admired your willing and unhesitant obedience to God, even when you did not understand.
Oh Most Immaculate Heart, I strive to be more like you… my prayers have evolved to include trying to discern God’s messages to me… pondering in my heart all that I learn.
Like you, my Blessed Mother, I put Jesus first in my life… committed to standing by the cross no matter what.
Holy Mother of God, I want to bring others to Jesus by proclaiming the Good News.
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, help me in my own biblical walk… by emulating you and by making prayer a priority. Amen.