The messenger of God has brought an invitation to you too
This talk was given to those about to make or renew their promises to God through Madonna House. Its message, though, applies to all who wish to follow Christ.
◈◈◈
Mary was very young. She was an ordinary girl. As far as the world knew, she wasn’t very important. But one day Gabriel, the angel of God, came to her with tidings of such importance that human minds reel before his words: You are to conceive and bear a son… The Holy Spirit will come upon you (Lk 1:26-38).
In a manner of speaking, the messenger of God has brought an invitation to you too, for it is easy to imagine that his call — I have chosen you; you have not chosen me (Jn 15:16) — has come to you through an angel, even as it came to Mary. It’s an invitation to each of us, men and women, to become the bride of God.
Immense as the message was, Mary still had to say “Yes, let it be done.” Isn’t that what you and I also have to say?
Angels can tell us in language, the music of which echoes God’s voice, that the Lord of hosts has chosen you or me to arise and follow him and only him. But unless each one of us answers him with our own “yes,” nothing will happen. God will stand there with empty arms, those arms that were ready to embrace you and me and take us for his own.
Each of you has had the same grace that Mary had, though in an infinitely smaller way. Each has said or will say his or her fiat. The Holy Spirit overshadows us with his graces, and, with his help, we each shall die to self and enter a time of waiting, of spiritual pregnancy with Christ.
Each of us exists, even as Mary did, to give birth to Christ in us. She was full of grace. We will be full of grace, too. Not as she was, without stain of original sin, but nevertheless, we will also be full of grace. She will help us to die to self, so that when we die, we will be able to say, with the ringing voice of St. Paul, I live not, Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20).
Oh, how the Annunciation blends with our apostolate, and how the Visitation completes it! For what have you said your yes to? Mary went on an errand of mercy. In our apostolate, you spend your life on errands of mercy. Every step you take is for others.
Alone, she traveled across dangerous country. It wasn’t an easy road. Is your road going to be easy? You’re going to travel in dangerous country — the country of temptations, doubts, dark nights, and dryness. But you won’t mind, because you’ll remember a little Jewish girl sitting on a donkey, going forth alone.
I bow low before this girl-woman. She was a human being, just like you and me. She had certain graces, but nevertheless, she did not understand. She truly is the mother of all those who believe with faith beyond our understanding.
She will teach you. When you’re in doubt, she will comfort you. When you’re in the dark night of the soul, she will sing her lullabies to you. And when all is aridity, when her Son seems to have disappeared, her soft voice will suddenly come to you. Her voice is like oil on a wounded heart. No matter how dark the night, there will be light, because Mary will be there.
Such is the school of love. Our Lord gently grows in you. To go to Mary is to be near Jesus. Gently, slowly, you will walk with her through the entire life of her Son — step by step, day by day, hour by hour — for she alone can lead you and open its secrets to you.
And you will notice that she has spoken very little, that you have learned at the feet of her silence, that it has enveloped you with a mantle, fragrant and sweet. And you will learn to be silent, silent with a depth of silence that allows others to hear the voice of God in you.
There, in that school of love, you will learn how to restore the world to God through her. You’ll know that restoration lies not in what you do but in what you are, Christ-bearers, life bearers, lovers. That’s all.
Remember that. Go to the school of love. Go to the woman who gave birth to perfect Love that casts out fear.
Adapted and excerpted from Bogoroditza, pp. 96-103 (available from MH Publications) and from a talk at spiritual reading, April 30, 1976.
Image: The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary icon by ©Marysia Kowalchyk, Madonna House.
