Exhaling

Father, I learn from Mary something about Your way in the world – as soon as we conceive the Word within us (always conceived of LOVE!), we are immediately open to being misunderstood, even by those closest to us.  Your own mother was misunderstood by the kindest and gentlest heart. How this must have hurt her, to know that Joseph was misjudging her, and was struggling interiorly because of her. Yet she trusted patiently, leaving it entirely in Your hands. Teach me that surrender, that complete surrender that allows me to offer Your Body on the altar of my own life, by allowing my life to be Yours. 

By Mary’s “FIAT” You were wedded to humanity, and her words were really Christ’s in her, one and the same with His. Her complete surrender to Your will was her acceptance; in giving all, she receives all. Her YES is Christ’s, as His YES echoed hers throughout His own life. It was her embrace of ALL You willed for her and for us, including every grief and suffering implied – her own embrace of the cross. The courageous YES of this young girl proved her complete trust in Your Providence.

 Yes, You ask for blind trust but also extreme courage in love. If our life is in Christ, if we are to become His other selves, we must be courageous; if Christ is formed of our lives, it means He will suffer in us and we will suffer in Him. My surrender to Your will is my consent to Jesus living through me, suffering in my body, loving with my heart and hands, praying in me, pouring Himself out in the specific form of my life. 

He lives forever in us.