Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/23/2011

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February 23, 2011
St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! I beseech you to take up the way of holiness beginning today. I love you and, therefore, I want you to be holy. I do not want Satan to block you on that way. Dear children, pray and accept all that God is offering you on a way which is bitter. But at the same time, God will reveal every sweetness to whomever begins to go on that way, and He will gladly answer every call of God. Do not attribute importance to petty things. Long for Heaven. Thank you for having responded to my call." (July 25, 1987)

In this message Our Lady is talking from experience.  She walked along the way of holiness from the time she was conceived.  But just because she never left that way, we should not imagine she was not tempted by Satan.  She knows what it is like to be harassed by the Evil One.  She had to deal with all the trials of daily life, all the weaknesses of her family members and neighbors, all the gossip and small mindedness, judgments and criticisms that abound in human society.  She was poor and vulnerable.  The enemy certainly would have tried to move her out of her peace, attempting to get her to reject all that God was offering 

 

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her.  But she didn't fall for it, not for a minute.  

She knew that though her life might be bitter because of suffering, that God's peace would make it sweet for her and that the Lord would answer every call she made to him along the way.  When Mary said "yes" to the Angel Gabriel and conceived Jesus, didn't the Lord reveal to Joseph His whole plan so that he would not reject Mary when he found her pregnant?  When Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem and had nowhere to stay, didn't He lead them to the stable where Jesus could be born?  When Herod sent soldiers to kill Jesus, didn't the Father warn them of Herod's plan and guide them into Egypt?  When the time came, didn't He lead them back to Nazareth?  Satan must have used fear to tempt Mary away from God at each of those moments, but she was steadfast and firm.

During all those hidden years in Nazareth Mary experienced the sweetness of life with Jesus and Joseph, but she also lived with the tension of knowing Jesus would someday have to leave to do His Father's will.  She knew the pain of seeing Jesus rejected and opposed, even as He went about healing the people.  She witnessed the arrest, torture and death of her beloved Son. But Satan could not budge her from her position of trust.  She was able to say "yes" to the Father no matter what.  Certainly the Father provided Mary with His Spirit, that sweetness from above, to help her through each trial.  And at the end, at the Resurrection, the sweetness overcame the bitterness completely!

And so when she tells us, "Dear children, pray and accept all that God is offering you on a way which is bitter. But at the same time, God will reveal every sweetness to whomever begins to go on that way, and He will gladly answer every call of God", we know she has experienced both the bitter and the sweet.  And she will be with us to bring us safely along that same path, that same way, through bitterness and sweetness, to the joys of heaven!  May we long for heaven as she urges us.  

In Jesus and Mary!

Cathy Nolan

 

 

   

 

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