Exhaling

What is wrong with a society in which its teens choose to look like starved sewer rats? It has lost its vision.

In a civilization in which we can control every facet of our lives, demand to be treated like Louis XIV, and explain everything scientifically or think we will be able to soon, we do not need God. When we do not worship God (“everybody’s worshipping something”), we worship ourselves and our stuff. And the fruit of self-worship is self-loathing. We cannot be fulfilled within ourselves, so we begin to destroy ourselves. And we become skeptical of everything beautiful, good, and true, which eventually leads to despair.

In contrast, Mary teaches us the correct attitude toward God, toward others, and toward society. First, as we pointed out in discussing the Annunciation, she shows us that we should have complete faith and trust in the Father who loves us personally. God is real, God is present, God is loving. God loves us each personally. She was able to say YES though she could not see the details of the future. But she trusted that God would take care of all the details perfectly. 

Then, she went “in haste” to help Elizabeth. There was no sitting around glorying in her own little moment (“little”?!). The Mother of God does not see that she should now have any special consideration or that others should be helping her, though she might. Instead, she goes “in haste” to serve (charity is always in a hurry, not a fluster). When she arrives and the reality of what God has done in her is confirmed by Elizabeth’s greeting, Mary acknowledges what God has done for her and then immediately returns all the glory to Him. She teaches us to take Christ to the streets in concrete acts of charity, animated by the love of Christ within us, and to give all glory to Him (“Non nisi, Domine…”). 

Finally, Mary was living in politically and religiously controversial times (much like our own in many ways). How did she respond to the issues of the day? Well, she did not become an activist (though she was raising the most revolutionary individual in the history of humanity), did not fight fire with fire, did not join the resistance, as they say. She didn’t dress up like a jester, break into the Roman barracks and spray paint peace messages on their spears. She simply did what was before her, and prayed, moving hearts one at a time in the direction of peace. 

Don’t get me wrong here: there is a time and a place for resistance and we absolutely – ABSOLUTELY – have an obligation to defend the truth. We must use the means available to us (and this varies for each individual) to protect the powerless, using the strength of our bodies to help those who are weak, the powers of our minds to advance all good, whatever material power or authority we have to defend the truth, the powers of our hearts to bring hope to the suffering and sorrowful. We absolutely must speak out (and sometimes act) against injustice and evil at every level. In our time, this especially means that we must make our voices heard (through writing, newspaper, speaking, protesting, silent witness, whatever) and make the truth known about abortion, war, euthanasia, poverty, economic injustice and more. We must. We MUST. With whatever voice God has given us, we must. 

The lesson we learn from Mary is that prayer is more powerful than action, though both are necessary; it’s just that we can’t get so caught up in our action that we forget that it would be powerless without prayer. Action must be preceded by prayer, accompanied by prayer, followed up with prayer. It must spring from prayer, remain enshrouded in prayer, and we must pray for the souls we are trying to move long after our activity has come to rest. 

So against the skepticism, despair, and egoism of the day, we look to Mary to learn the way of faith, hope, self-giving, humility, and confident trust in the love of God. In this is our peace, and peace can only come from within.