“Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye”

WORDS of Mary to the servants at the wedding in Cana. (cfr. Jn 2,1-11) While the festive celebration was going on, the mother of Christ noticed that wine was running out. She approached him to inform him of the problem, but her request at first was denied. “Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come,” he told her. But Mary knew how to handle that situation, and in the end Christ’s first miracle took place. 

 This is a beautiful story that highlights the fact that a good son would always try his best to accommodate whatever his mother would ask even if such request may involve some difficulty. Mary did not force him to accede to her request. She simply made things easy for such request to be eventually granted. 

 It cannot be denied that mothers somehow enjoy certain privileges with their children, if they are good children. Thus, Mary did not make an issue of the denial she at first received. 

 It’s this privilege that Mary enjoyed and continues to enjoy with Christ that a saint once said that she is “the safest, easiest, shortest, and most perfect way of approaching Jesus.” It would be a pity if we fail to realize how effective Mary can be as an intercessor for us. Not only that, she actually can anticipate our needs as dramatized at the wedding in Cana. 

 Indeed, Mary is the epitome of motherhood who knows how to be a mother even to God and to all of us. All of that because of her perfect identification of her will with the will of God, giving us a concrete example of how a human being can be so identified with God’s will that she becomes God’s perfect image and likeness as God wants her and also us to be. 

 We are often incredulous, even skeptical, about this possibility. But she managed to do it. Obviously, she was given the necessary graces for that. But she also corresponded to those graces with everything that she had, reflecting in the most perfect way the redemptive mission, full of suffering, of her son. How our Lady was and continues to be should also be how we should be. 

 And she is all there to help us achieve that dignity of being true children of God who can even be a mother of God and a spouse of God as our Lady was the most dutiful daughter of the God the father, mother of God the Son and spouse of God the Holy Spirit. 

 Let us just imitate our Lady’s perfect faith shown especially when she said, “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum,” (Be it done to me according to your word) during the Annunciation. With that faith which for sure she could not understand completely, she put herself entirely under the designs and dynamics of God’s will of love, of redemption, toward mankind. 

 Let’s see to it that our devotion to her grows. And if it is practically dormant if not dead, then let’s stir it up to life again. She is important to us. In fact, she is indispensable to us. She cannot be treated as an optional feature in our spiritual life, nor something decorative or appendical only. 

 While she is not God and, therefore, not to be accorded with the worship that is only due to God (latria), she rightly deserves to be given the highest form of veneration (hyperdulia) among all the saints who are already with God in heaven.

Strong in the faith

WE should aim at having our faith as strong as possible. This is the only way we can start and keep sharing the very life of God here on earth. That’s actually the ideal condition for us to be in. Otherwise, there’s no way but for us to lead a life that is mainly temporal, worldly and prone to fall into the ways of brute animals. 

 We are reminded of this need in that gospel episode where a man with palsy was brought to Christ for curing. Since they could not get close to him due to the crowd, they climbed to the roof, bore a hole and lowered the man with palsy until he landed right in front of Christ. Impressed by their faith, Christ first forgave the man’s sin before curing him. (cfr. Mk 2,1-12) 

 To be always with Christ should be the strongest desire we should have in our life. Unless we have this fundamental and abiding desire, all our desiring would be vain and futile. We need to realize this truth of our faith, and do our best to cultivate such desire in our life. 

 It may not be easy, given our human condition, limited as it is by our nature and handicapped further by the effects of sin, ours and those of others. But once we know this truth of our faith, we can always do something about this challenge. 

 To be sure, God, on his part, has already given us everything. The ball is actually in our court. We just have to pick up the means and start the ball rolling. To begin, we can make many acts of faith, hope and charity. 

 St. Augustine expressed this truth of faith very clearly: “The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.” This assertion is certainly based on what God himself said: “Seek my face” (Ps 27,8), and on what Christ said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) 

 We need to make our faith strong and operative because only with it can we start to share God’s knowledge of things and his power, which is how our life should be since we are God’s image and likeness, meant to share in the very life of God. 

 At one point, Christ lamented the common phenomenon of our lack of faith. “This generation is an evil generation,” he said. “It seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” (cfr. Lk 11,29-32) 

 If there is no faith, we will never see the things of God and the rich reality of the truly spiritual and supernatural world, no matter how much we spin our human powers to capture this reality. Not even our powerful sciences and technologies can enter into the spiritual and supernatural reality of our life. 

 We have to realize that our faith should not remain only in the theoretical, intellectual level. It has to be a functioning one, giving shape and direction in our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds. In fact, it should shape our whole life. 

 The ideal condition is for us to feel our faith immediately. Indeed, it should be like an instinct such that whatever we think, say or do, or whenever we have to react to something, it is our faith that should guide us. 

 With faith, we can have hope and confidence as we go through the wind and waves of the ocean of life. More than that, faith enables us to live charity, especially its fine points and its more challenging aspects.

When we reach our limits

SINCE true Christian love will always ask for more and, in fact, endless things, we should not be surprised when at a certain point we will reach our limits. We know that we are supposed not to say enough in our self-giving, but given our limited natural condition that is poised to enter into the supernatural life of God, there will always be a limit in that self-giving. 

 When that moment arrives, we should just assume the very attitude of Christ who, when on the cross reached the limit of his self-giving in spite of the overwhelming effort to do a lot of good to everyone, just left everything in the hands of his Father. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” he said. (Lk 23,46) 

 We should just leave everything in the hands of God who will be the only one to complete and perfect everything that is meant for us. Remember St. Paul telling us: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1,6) 

 This can only mean that while we do everything we can, we should in the end learn how to live a healthy spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. With all the things that we have to contend with in this life, we certainly need to have a healthy sense of trust in God’s loving and wise providence, abandoning ourselves in his will and ways that often are mysterious to us and can appear to be contrary to what we would like to have. 

 A healthy spirit of abandonment in God’s hands is necessary even as we exhaust all possible human means to achieve our goals or simply to tackle all the challenges, trials and predicaments of our life. We should never forget this truth of our faith. 

 In this life, we need to acquire a good, healthy sporting spirit, because life is actually like a game. Yes, life is like a game. We set out to pursue a goal, we have to follow certain rules, we are given some means, tools and instruments, we are primed to win and we do our best, but losses can come, and yet, we just have to move on. 

 Woe to us when we get stuck with our defeats and failures, developing a loser’s mentality. That would be the epic fail that puts a period and a finis in a hanging narrative, when a comma, a colon or semi-colon would have sufficed. 

 We need a sporting spirit because life’s true failure can come only when we choose not to have hope. That happens when our vision and understanding of things is narrow and limited, confined only to the here and now and ignorant of the transcendent reality of the spiritual and supernatural world. 

 We should never forget that God is always around. He never abandons us in spite of our stupidities. In fact, the more we stray from him, the more solicitous he would be of us. We should just learn how to convert this psalm into reality: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (95,8) 

 We always have to go to God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. This is not an exercise of surrender and futility, but rather of conquest and victory. With God, everything always works for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) 

 St. Paul precisely recommended this move. “Do not be anxious about anything,” he said, “but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 6,6-7)