Fr. Guillrey Anthony M. Andal, SJ
Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
January 1, 2019
It’s the start of 2019. What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Well, 23% of those who pledge new year’s resolutions rescind on their promises within the first week of the year! In fact, according to an investigation published in the Journal of Substance Abuse (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1989), only 19% of more than 200 participants of a two-year study actually followed through with their resolutions. This figure may even be quite optimistic, considering that the participants were self-reporting their progress and might have felt pressured to live up to the expectations of the researchers who monitored them through the course of the research. What is clear, however, is that the “decay curve” concerning the participants’ resoluteness through the months is obvious.
It is not surprising, then, that some of us scuff at the idea of making new year’s resolutions, precisely because of our proclivity to fail! But then, have we asked ourselves: Why do we lack the resolve to be resolute with our resolutions?
Today’s Marian feast may help us a bit with our introspection. The Church once again offers us a timely opportunity to gaze at our Blessed Mother, the Mother of God so that we may model ourselves after her, who is steadfast, persistent, and constant in listening to, seeking, and following God. Indeed, if there is one resolution that we may want to consider individually and communally it may just be that: listen to, seek, and follow God better this year than ever before!
Mary was a resolute woman; courageous in the face of uncertainty. When the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be the mother of our Savior, she might have wondered how this could happen but never really questioned why this should happen—to her! She was unfaltering with her fiat, trusting our God and listening to Him whose wisdom, though unfathomable, was as palpable as His love for Mary and all of humanity. Like Mary, we too can be a bit more steadfast in listening to God’s will in our lives.
Mary was a resolute mother, sincere and devoted to her relationship with her Son. She tirelessly sought after her child Jesus when he wandered away from her and Joseph’s care. She was with Jesus when He turned water to wine. And she was one of the few who stood by her dying Son at Golgotha. From her womb to His tomb, Mary was mother to our Lord. Like Mary, we ought to be anxious when we find ourselves straying away from the Lord; more so, like Mary, we ought to persist in seeking and staying with the Lord even in the most worrisome occasions in our lives. Like Mary, our relationship with her Son ought to define us.
Lastly, Mary was a resolute disciple. Hers was a missionary spirit from the very start. She did not waver in reaching out to Elizabeth to share the Good News. Indeed, Pope Francis refers to Mary as the mother of evangelization. In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, our beloved pope writes: “With the Holy Spirit, Mary is always present in the midst of the people…She joined the disciples in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14) and thus made possible the missionary outburst which took place at Pentecost. She is the mother of the Church which evangelizes, and without her, we could never truly understand the spirit of the new evangelization.” Like and through Mary, then, we ought to constantly respond to the Lord’s invitation to proclaim the Good News to all.
Mary was a resolute woman, mother, and disciple. But where does she get her resolve?
Interestingly, the adjective “resolute” comes from the Latin resolutus that denotes the act (resolvere) of “loosening, unyoking, relaxing, making void, and setting free.” Words that can describe too I suppose, the efficacious grace that Mary and all of us receive from the salvific love of God. God frees us because God loves us. God sets us free from the yoke of sin and that debilitating fear of standing unworthy before the Almighty.
What makes Mary’s experience qualitatively different though is how she had consistently shown, by her life, that with this fullness of the grace of freedom, comes the great possibility and responsibility to be ever more sensitive and docile to God’s will and faithful and persistent in remaining in God’s abiding presence.
By, God’s grace, Mary was a woman whose life was an unwavering “yes” to all that it took to be the Lord’s mother. Her life was a grateful exaltation, magnifying God for the wonders He has done in (and through) her. She bore the marks of agony and pain, but she cherished all these in her heart. Her resolve came from the graced freedom of understanding, experiencing, and appreciating how God loves and how God lives even in a world as bleak as ours.
This great possibility is made available to us as well. We too can and thus, ought to be more open to God’s emancipating grace and be resolute especially during these challenging days for our nation and Church.
And so, like Mary, may we then be bearers of God to one another through lives liberated by God’s merciful love so that, by His Grace, we may listen to, seek, and follow Him better this year than ever before! Let this be our resolution.